Are you cleaning your laboratory equipment correctly after each experiment? Each container needs to be washed and dried appropriately so as to maintain correctness for the scientific output. Emphordlas, leading laboratory glassware supplier in UAE explains the same.

Laboratory glassware should be clean in an exceptional way which means it should be chemically clean, sterile and grease-free. The glassware needs to have uniform wetness for the surface and needs to clean using distilled water. The presence of grease in the glassware can hinder the uniform wetting of the glass. Awash with organic solvent needs to be done in doubt of grease presence otherwise it can falsify the volume of liquid contained in the glassware. The presence of small amounts of impurities may also alter the meniscus.

Caking is a common phenomenon seen in laboratory glassware when residues are left after an experiment. The longer it stays, it is harder it to get it cleaned. If glassware is not cleaned immediately, it may become impossible to remove the residue. Do not overload sinks, dishwashers, or soaking bins. Rubber sink and counter mats can help reduce the chance of breakage and resultant injury. Most new glassware is slightly alkaline in reaction. For precision chemical tests, new glassware should be soaked several hours in acid water before washing.

Pipette

Place pipette pointing down in a jar full of water immediately after use. Keep the pipette carefully remembering that the tip of the pipette is easily breakable? Cotton or glass wool can prevent that from happening. Fill the appropriate amount of water so that it fills the pipette completely. Pipette can be drained after a while and passed in a jar of dissolved detergent, you can use chromic acid if the dirt is too sticky. After soaking for several hours, or overnight, drain the pipettes and run tap water over and through them until all traces of dirt are removed. Soak the pipette s in distilled water for at least 1 hour. Remove from the distilled water, rinse, dry the outside with a cloth, shake the water out and dry.

In large laboratories in the UAE, pipette washers are employed to wash many pipette s simultaneously. Some are made of metal quite elaborately and is fixed permanently to fixed hot and cold water supplies.
Polyethene baskets and jars may be used for soaking and rinsing pipette s in the chromic acid cleaning solution. Electrically heated metallic pipette driers are also available.

Dry the pipette dust free. Serologic and bacterial pipette s need to be dry air sterilized appropriately. After drying, place chemical pipette s in a dust-free drawer. Wrap serologic and bacteriologic pipette s in paper or place in the pipette cans and sterilize in the dry air sterilizer at 180°C for 2 hours. Pipette s used for transferring infectious material should have a plug of cotton placed in the top end of the pipette before sterilizing for avoiding wrong measurements for the next experiment.

Burettes

Wash the Burette with detergent solution after removing the stopcock. Rinse in continuous flowing water till all the dirt is removed. Wash stopcock separately and lubricate the joints before they are placed back. Burettes should be covered when not in use.

Culture Tubes

Culture tubes should be autoclaved for 30 minutes at 121°C and 15lb pressure. Resides that solidifies needs to be removed while they are hot. Tubes need to be washed with detergent water and then rinse with distilled water, in a basket and dried. If tubes are to be filled with a medium that is sterilized by autoclaving, do not plug until the medium is added. Both medium and tubes are thus sterilized with one autoclaving.

Slides and Cover Glass

It is especially important that microscope slides and cover glass used for the preparation of blood films or bacteriologic smears be perfectly clean and free from scratches. Slides should be washed, placed in glacial acetic acid for 10 minutes, rinsed with distilled water, and wiped dry with clean paper towels or cloth. Before use, wash with alcohol and wipe dry. Or the slides, after acid treatment and rinsing may be placed in a wide jar and covered with alcohol.

Drying and Storing Glassware

Tubes, flasks and other glassware should be dried by hanging them upside down for air drying. They can be placed in a basket and dry in an oven with a temperature not more than 140°C. Never apply heat directly to empty glassware used for volumetric measurements.

Before placing glassware in a basket, cover the bottom of the basket with a clean folded towel or a clean piece of cloth. This prevents the mouths of the tubes from becoming dirty and dusty. You can stuff in cotton, corking, or putting a piece of paper over the mouth to make the storage cabinet dust free. Be sure pieces do not touch each other, to avoid inadvertent mechanical damage. Do not store glassware close to the front edge of shelves. Do not store alkaline liquids in volumetric flasks or burets. Stoppers or stopcocks may stick.
While you purchase laboratory equipment in UAE from Emphor DLAS, you can check with experts at the store regarding storing and cleaning various glassware in the lab. You can shop online for UAE in shop.emphordlas.com