Common Lab Glassware and Uses

Source: Laboratory of Dr. Neal Abrams — SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Glassware is a regular appearance in the professional chemistry laboratory, because it has a relatively low cost, extreme durability, and specific levels of precision. While some labware is being supplemented with plastic or even everyday kitchen materials, glass is still the standard material by which laboratory work is done. While there are few rules about glassware, there are some best practices for use that set the groundwork for good techniques in the lab.

Glass is ubiquitous in the chemistry laboratory, but not all glass is the same. Standard consumer-grade glass is known as "soda-lime" or "float" glass. It is good for many applications, but cracks under rapid heating and cooling applications due to expansion/contraction. Borosilicate glass is used to solve this problem in the lab. Made with an introduction of small amounts of boron, borosilicate glass has a very low coefficient of expansion, which prevents internal stresses. The most common trade name for borosilicate glass is Pyrex, the same type of glass used in some kitchen bakeware.

While borosilicate glass is thermally robust, the impurities found in borosilicate and standard glass lead to a limited temperature range and optical quality. Fused silica, or quartz, is used in situations where glass needs to be heated above 450 °C or to be transparent to UV light. Fused silica is chemically-pure silicon dioxide with no impurities and a very high melting point above 1,600 °C. The easiest way to tell the difference between borosilicate glass and fused silica in the lab is to look down the long axis of a piece of glassware. A greenish color is indicative of borosilicate impurities, whereas fused silica is optically clear and colorless.