1First the Basics
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First the Basics ALWAYS Safety First Why? 1 Safety is important for you, as well as for your coworkers. There are inherent dangers in organic chemistry lab; the chemicals you will work with may be very flammable, and some are toxic. Safety is your number one priority. By working safely and in control of the situation, you not only protect yourself and your classmates, but you also protect the environment from the effect of harmful chemicals. Which Safety Features Are Available in the Lab? A laboratory is always equipped with an alarm system and a sprinkler system, which will be activated either when an alarm is pulled or triggered by an occurrence in the building. Each laboratory room is equipped with safety showers, eyewashes, and fire extinguish- ers. The lab rooms have multiple exit doors to allow for quick evacuation. If anything goes wrong, your instructor must be alerted immediately. Most emergencies can be handled with available personnel. But if there is any doubt that help is needed, CALL 911. It is much better to err on the side of caution. When calling 911, it is advis- able to use a line phone, as most cell phones don’t tell the operator where you are located. The safety shower should only be used if necessary; that is, when your clothing is on fire or if a large amount of chemicals has been spilled on your body and cloth- ing. If this is not the case, it is more efficient to use the faucets and spray heads in the sink. Any contamination of the skin must be rinsed with water for 15 minutes. If any chemical comes in contact with your eye, use the eyewash station. Hold your First the Basics eye open with your fingers, and irrigate your eye for 15 minutes. This may seem • like a very long time, but taking this precaution is vital to your safety! The fire extinguisher can be used if there is a fire in the lab. If the fire is in a beaker or flask, it is usually much safer to cover the container and let the fire die due to lack of oxygen. If you are not sure how to use a fire extinguisher, don’t do it. If you Chapter 1 are not sure that you can extinguish the fire, don’t do it. Call your instructor, who has been trained to use a fire extinguisher. Be aware that there are different kinds of fire extinguishers. The most common fire extinguisher in a teaching laboratory is labeled as “ABC,” and is appropriate for use in the event of most chemical fires. Each organic chemistry laboratory is equipped with fume hoods. A hood is an enclosed space with a high continuous air flow, which will keep noxious and toxic 2 fumes out of the general laboratory space. Hoods are often used in teaching labo- ratories to dispense reagents in a safe fashion. Frequently the workbenches in the laboratory are equipped with either overhead vent hoods or down drafts on the benches itself. What Should I Wear? Your eyes are the most vulnerable part of your body. At all times, you should wear goggles in the lab. No exceptions. The goggles must be “chemical resistant”; the vent holes at the top of these goggles do not allow any liquid to get inside. Lots of people wear contact lenses. Accident statistics show that wearing contacts is not more dangerous than wearing glasses in the lab, as long as goggles are worn, but you have to be very aware of the fact that you are wearing these lenses. If an accident occurs and you are wearing contacts, remove them as soon as possible. Any exposed part of your body is vulnerable to contamination by chemicals. An apron or lab coat should be worn at all times. Shoulders should be covered, so no tank tops without a lab coat. Closed-toe shoes are also essential. Sandals or flip-flops are not allowed. The remaining question is: Should gloves be worn or not? There is no denying that gloves play an essential part in lab safety. However, you should be conscious of the fact that gloves are also composed of chemicals, and therefore the right kind of glove should be worn for specific chemicals. Manufacturers of gloves offer in- formation regarding the protection different gloves provide for certain chemicals. Also, it is more difficult to manipulate small items when wearing gloves, and the chances of spills increases with glove use. For most experiments in teaching labo- ratories, gloves are optional if the chemicals used are not toxic or caustic. Gloves should be worn if indicated in the procedure. What Should I Pay Attention to? • No smoking, eating or drinking are allowed in the laboratory. Never taste anything in the lab. Safety First ALWAYS • Never leave an experiment in progress unattended, especially if heating is involved. Should you need to leave the lab while an experiment is in progress, get your instructor or a classmate to keep watch over your reaction while you are gone. • For most experiments, digital thermometers are the best choice. However, for certain experiments, mercury thermometers are irreplaceable. Special rules apply to mercury thermometers because of the highly toxic nature of mercury. 3 If you break a mercury thermometer, do not try to clean it up. You should notify your instructor immediately so that the problem will be taken care of. Make absolutely certain you do not walk through the mercury-contaminated area. You sure don’t want to track toxic mercury back to your apartment or dorm room. To avoid breaking a thermometer, secure it at all times with a clamp. • If there is a desk area in your lab room, there will be a very clear dividing line between the non-chemical area and the laboratory area. Classroom rules ap- ply to a desk area, while laboratory rules strictly apply once the line into the lab section is crossed. • Aisles must be kept free of obstructions, such as backpacks, coats, and other large items. • Never fill a pipet by mouth suction. Avoid contamination of reagents. Use clean and dry scooping and measuring equipment. • Do not use any glass containers, such as beakers or crystallizing dishes, to collect ice out of an ice machine. It is impossible to see the glass shards of a broken container in the ice, and fellow students could get seriously cut if they put their hand in. • If the faucets for the deionized water are made of plastic, treat them gently! • Immediately report defective equipment to the instructor so it can be repaired. Chemical Waste One thing to remember about chemicals is that they don’t just go away. There- First the Basics • fore, we are all responsible for making sure they get where they belong. There are several waste streams in each laboratory, whether teaching or research: aqueous waste, regular garbage, glass waste, liquid organic waste, solid chemical waste, and special waste streams. We’ll discuss all of these in order. Chapter 1 Rule # 1: Only water goes down the drain. It could be soapy water, or it could be very slightly acidic or alkaline, but that’s where it stops. NO EXCEP- TIONS! The effluent of the laboratories joins all the other effluent of the city and it is therefore essential that no hazardous materials whatsoever go down the drain. Regular garbage: All solid non-chemical non-glass waste goes in the gar- bage cans. Lots of paper towels end up here. 4 Glass waste: All glass waste, in particular Pasteur pipets and other sharp objects, are collected in special containers to avoid harmful accidents. Liquid organic waste: All organic waste, except the solids, goes into the liquid waste container. This includes the organic solutions generated during your experiments, and all the acetone washings of the glassware. This waste has to be clearly identified at all times with waste tags, and will be disposed of responsibly. These containers have to be capped at all times when not in use, according to EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) rules. Solid chemical waste: Solid organic chemical waste should be placed into a designated container. This waste includes silica gel from columns, drying agents, contaminated filter paper, etc. It will be disposed of by the laboratory personnel in a responsible fashion. Special waste streams: For certain experiments, separate specific waste streams will be created. This includes Cr waste from an oxidation reaction or the catalyst used in catalytic hydrogenation. These mixtures require special treatment due to either their toxicity or inherent chemical properties. The Why and How of a Laboratory Notebook The Basics About Notebooks A laboratory notebook is the essential record of what happened in the laboratory. This is valid for teaching laboratories, synthetic research laboratory, or analytical chemistry laboratory. If you do an experiment, you need to write down exactly what you did and what happened. Fellow scientists should be able to read your notebook, and maybe come up with possible alternative explanations for what happened. If a chemist in a pharmaceutical company made the drug taxol for the first time, other scientists might want to repeat this synthesis and potentially improve upon it. To be able to publish experimental results, such as the synthesis of a drug, an official record of these experiments has to exist. There are some basic rules as far as notebooks are concerned: The Why and How of a Laboratory Notebook • The pages in a notebook are always numbered. • No pages are ever removed. • All entries are in ink, and are never deleted. If you change your mind about 5 something, you can always scratch out an entry, but never erase.