Properly cleaning lab glassware - is it possible?

[Ray Rogers]

I use... a neutralizing solution.... (Carbonate) in case of an acid spill.

PE

What strength?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Ray;

It does not matter. You can use solid carbonate powder (crystals) for a spill of acid on the floor.

PE

 

[Ray Rogers]

Can you describe the whole process?
The use of that cleaning mixture is well known and even appears in kodak publications.
The clean up procedure for accidents however is apperaently a bit more well hidden.

Are you saying you would use a sat. solution for spills on flesh but the powder for the floor?
What would prudent subsequent measures look like ?
(rags and paper towels-in the kitchen/lab trash bag?
or down the toilet?)

How would baking soda fare in case of a spill, in the absence of washing soda?

 

[Photo Engineer]

Ray;

Use Washing Soda on the floor if you wish either saturated or solid. Use Baking Soda on skin dilute and lots of running water. The H2SO4 I buy is 35 - 37% and comes with instructions for a spill on it.

The solid fizzes and foams and after finishing, you will have a mushy solid that can be flushed down a toilet much like you run the detergent or Washing Soda down the toilet. It can harm septic systems though due to high salt content.

Any and all of what you suggest is possible if your local disposal system can handle it.

I suggest that NO ONE use concentrated H2SO4 for any purpose. It is TOO DANGEROUS! Even cleaning drains is fraught with danger. Any porcelain container can crack and water can boil if you add conc H2SO4 to them. Spatter and fumes can then create a mess.

PE

 

[Ray Rogers]

Good advice.

 

[Jeff Bannow]

This has been an amazingly useful thread.

 

[lajolla]

Many thanks PE for yet another invaluable darkroom chemistry tutorial. Nearly fifty years ago as a student I practiced a similar sulfuric acid/carbonate (acid/base) regimen in cleaning our student chemistry labs' glassware.
I still remember the vivid professorial safety demonstrations during the first week of classes surrounding the addition of H2SO4 to water in glassware, or the addition of metallic sodium to H2O in a lab sink. Thanks again.

 

[Photo Engineer]

In our lab, a student got H2SO4 on her lab coat and told no one. It dissolved her coat, her clothes and started on her before the other instructor got her into the sink and had started running water on her abdomen. In another incident a student poured benzene with Sodium shavings down the sink and then washed it down with water causing a flame clear to the ceiling along with a beautiful "bang".

Oh, the stories are long and painful. We even had our explosions and fires at EK with TOTL professionals. You cannot be too careful in a chemistry lab.

Thanks for your interest.

PE

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Is the leftover hardener from Kodak Rapid Fixer sufficiently weak to be safe yet sufficiently strong to be effective as a cleaning agent? I've got lots of bottles of the stuff sitting left over, as I don't use the hardener for prints or films anymore.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

My mum was a lab washer many years ago, doing the cleaning up work in an Paediatric Oncology Research lab at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. Detergent, antiseptic and steam wash/dry (autoclave) then sterile repackaging was the stock standard treatment for all glasswear, from tiny, frail pipettes to huge bulbous vessels that mixed and separated autologous bone marrow for transplants (something to do with horses to humans). All the poisonous, fancy chemical concoction stuff mentioned above is overly extravagant and unnecessary — you will get more contaminants from tap water than what is on glass, and it's just for darkroom use. Bicarb soda and hot water and scrubbing is all that is needed. Unless you're in surgery, you won't be needing an autoclave.

 

[OldBikerPete]

I'm another ex chemist and we used PE's methods up to about 15 years ago.
More recently we switched to one of the extremely aggressive detergents that had become available -I don't remember the name (hey, I've been retired a while) 'something-100'. Contact lab suppliers to find out. I'm sure that if there was some really stubborn deposit on some glassware I'd still revert to chromic acid.

 

[Photo Engineer]

Is the leftover hardener from Kodak Rapid Fixer sufficiently weak to be safe yet sufficiently strong to be effective as a cleaning agent? I've got lots of bottles of the stuff sitting left over, as I don't use the hardener for prints or films anymore.

The acid content is good, but the aluminum would make a mess if you hit it with alkali. You would get an aluminum scum.

PE