Equipment
Fume Hood Lockers
Each fume hood in the lab is designed for 2 people to work in. The fume hoods are labeled with coloured position markers which correspond with a fume hood locker. Your allocated locker will often be directly below your fume hood, but this isn't always the case so be sure to double check you are using the correct equipment. All equipment from the lockers should be returned at the end of your lab day, ready for the next student to use it.
Locker Contents
Stirrer Hotplates
Stirrer hotplates are used to heat reactions. They contain a rotating magnet which allows a stirrer bar to stir the reaction mixture. The temperature and rate of stirring are controlled using dials on the front.
Clamps, Bosses and Retort Rings
Clamps and bosses are used to support glassware during reactions. Clamps attach to the glassware or equipment, whereas bosses are used to attach clamps to fume hood scaffolding. O-rings can also be used to support separating funnels.
Lab Jack
Lab jacks are used to hold stirrer hotplates during a reaction, raising it off the fume hood floor. This means the heat source can be lowered once a reaction has completed, to allow the flask to cool safely.
Heating Blocks
Heating blocks are solid blocks of metal, recessed to hold a particular size of round bottom flasks. They allow round bottom flasks to be relatively evenly heated on a hotplate, which heat by conduction and require contact with the flask.
Tubing
Rubber tubing has a variety of uses and comes in a variety of sizes and materials. The thin wall tubing is used for attaching to condensers, for water to flow through. The thick wall tubing is used to attach Buchner flasks to the vacuum taps
Bunsen Burners
Bunsen burners burn natural gas to produce a flame to heat reactions. These are generally not used in teaching labs any more as electric stirrer hotplates are a safer, more efficient heat source for most experiments.