Orientation on Laboratory Safety and Laboratory Techniques

Laboratory Safety in the Conduct of the Experiment

1. Wear your PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) during the conduct of the experiment
 Do not use contact lenses, use laboratory goggles
 Closed shoes are to be worn
 Wear mask to prevent inhalation of chemical fumes
 Wear laboratory gowns
 Tie your hair ( for ladies) to avoid interference in your work
2. Report accidents, breakages, chemical spills, and accidents to sir Joe or to the instructor
3. Do not eat in the laboratory, should there be a need for you to eat then you may eat outside the
room
4. Do not smoke inside the laboratory
5. Unauthorized experiment is prohibited
6. Never leave set-up unattended
7. Handle chemicals with extreme caution
 Use laboratory gloves
 Concentrated reagents are to be handled under the fume hood
8. Properly dispose laboratory waste
 Waste bottles are provided for organic, inorganic, heavy metal wastes , broken
glasswares and among others
9. Observe cleanliness and orderliness when working in the laboratory
 Do not contaminate reagents by rinsing droppers and rods immediately after use
 Clean spills immediately
 Always clean dirty glasswares by using your waiting times (e.g. heating )
 Wash hands with soap before leaving the laboratory
10. Be calm in case of fire ( note: acetone, ethanol, and methanol are flammable)

Laboratory Techniques

Filtration

 Given a square piece of ordinary filter paper, fold this into half and into quarters. Trim the filter
paper to have a circular shape. Make sure that this fits in the funnel.
 Open the folded, trimmed filter paper to form a cone, one layer thickness on one side, and three
layer thicknesses on the other.
 Fit the filter paper into the funnel and moisten the side with glass rod. Take note, the edge of
the filter paper must be ½ cm the tip of the funnel.
Titration

Preparation of the burettes

 Wash the burettes with detergent solution Rinse with tap water Rinse with
distilled water
 Rinse the burette with the solution to be used , 3X (triple washing)
 Fill the burette with the needed solution

Titration Techniques

 Deliver the solution drop by drop while continuously swirling the solution (wrist movement)
 Use a funnel when pouring solutions into the clean burette
 Refill with the needed solution to the zero mark
 Use lower meniscus reading
 Remove any adhering drops from the burette tip
 If you are left - handed, use right hand to regulate liquid flow and left hand to swirl the flask and
vice versa if you are right – handed
 Use a white background under the flask to monitor color changes

Measurement of liquid samples

 One standard drop of a solution is 0.05 mL; thus 1 mL is equivalent to 20 drops. A few drops
mean 1-2 drops while several drops mean 3-6 drops.

Jennifer B. Antonio
Instructor of Chemistry
Sem_2_19-20