A new laboratory?

Building or refurbishing a new laboratory

If you are working in a brand new school or one which is being refurbished you may be involved with or consulted over the design and installation of a new chemistry laboratory. Different countries will have their own legal requirements and different schools will be working to different budgets. Among things to consider are:

the maximum number of students to cater for
the supply and positioning of services such as water, electricity and gas
heights and sizes of workbenches
adequate lighting
fume cupboards and general ventilation
storage of chemicals
preparation areas
office space for teaching staff and the technician(s)

You will need to search for suppliers in your own country. For example, in the U.K. two good companies that will design and supply to your specifications are Interfocus and Tecomak.

Equipping a new laboratory

As a teacher you may not have much involvement in the design and installation of a new laboratory but you should definitely insist that you are at least consulted as to what goes in it. Although there are the mandatory laboratory components there are no compulsory experiments that must be done for the IB either at SL or at HL. This means that different schools may have very different equipment. Nevertheless there is some basic equipment that all schools should have and also some essential chemicals. Below is a list that I have made for a typical IB school. As you will see this contains an introduction with further information (including using or adapting materials from supermarkets at no cost!) as well as apparatus and chemicals.

Suggested equipment for an IB HL Chemistry course

Introduction

The new Chemistry programme examined for the first time in May 2016 does not include any mandatory chemical techniques that must be covered practically except possibly titration which is listed under Topics 1 and 8 although even this could be covered using a simulation. However it does include some specific ICT techniques and all students must use a data logger at least once during the two year programme. Candidates should spend approximately 60 hours on laboratory work and this should form a broad and balanced programme but the actual choice of which specific experiments are included is left to the individual teacher. Because students will all carry out their own Individual Scientific Investigation for ten hours a variety of different equipment and chemicals is advisable although many students may opt to obtain their data from secondary sources for this. It is therefore impossible to devise a prescribed list of equipment and materials applicable to all schools as each school will have its own individual requirements. Furthermore the choice of options will considerably influence the final choice of experimental investigations. However from my experience of running workshops worldwide for IB chemistry teachers I find that I am often asked to provide such a list. The following is an attempt to satisfy this demand but it must be stressed that in no way is it mandatory and that for many schools financial restrictions and availability will inevitably play a large part in determining what equipment and materials can be obtained. Similarly different countries have different Health and Safety regulations and what may be legal in one country may be illegal in another.

For the purpose of the following list I have made several assumptions. I have assumed that for the most part students will be working in a purpose-built laboratory with sufficient space for them to work adequately in pairs with each pair having access to a sink with running cold water, a mains electricity supply and a supply of natural or bottled gas. I have assumed a class size of between 12 and 16 students and listed the equipment either as that to be shared by the whole class or the equipment necessary for each pair.

It should be stressed that the nature of practical work in Chemistry has changed radically in the past few years. There is now a strong emphasis both on risk assessment for safety and concern for minimising any harm to the environment. For both of these reasons microscale or small scale experiments are to be strongly encouraged. With the advent of electronic balances capable of weighing to ± 0.001 g this does not mean that accuracy has to be sacrificed. Indeed for many experiments gravimetric rather than volumetric analysis now gives more accurate results and uses considerably less chemicals and reduces the need for large quantities of distilled or de-ionized water. For this reason where volumetric analysis is used I have recommended 10 cm³ pipettes and 100 cm³ volumetric flasks in place of the more traditional 25 cm³ pipettes and 250 cm³ volumetric flasks. Many good experiments can now be performed using very cheap ‘supermarket’ materials and this has the added advantage that students are able to adapt the materials to design an investigation and overcome problems at virtually no cost. Examples include the use of polycarbonate cola bottles fitted with a car tyre valve for gas law experiments, polystyrene cups for use as calorimeters for determining enthalpy changes, beer bottle tops as a crucible for determining the formula of magnesium oxide and zipped bags as mini fume cupboards for toxic gas reactions. Dropping pipettes, very small test-tubes and well plates all play an important role in reducing the amount of chemicals used. From my own experience I have found that students are often more observant, not less observant, when they carry out reactions on a small scale. Finally students should be encouraged to widen their concept of what is meant by a ‘laboratory’ and engage in some practical investigations outside of the traditional school laboratory. Planned visits to university or industrial research laboratories, local chemical industries, local powers stations and waste water treatment plants and the use of spread sheets, data banks and search engines on the Internet can all form an important part of the practical programme.

1. Equipment for the whole class

1 x electronic top pan balance weighing to 0.001 g

1 x electronic top pan balance weighing to 0.01 g

1 x still for distilled water + containers for the distilled water

1 x oven

1 x microwave oven

1 x desicator

1 x food calorimeter

1 x gas syringe oven

1 x visible spectrometer or colorimeter

1 x Hoffman voltammeter

1 x melting point apparatus fitted with 0 – 360 ^oC thermometer

4 x data loggers

Assortment of data logging probes (e.g. temperature, pH, calorimeter, light)

Sufficient supply of small test-tubes, ignition tubes, boiling tubes and dropping pipettes

Sufficient supply of clamp stands, clamps and bosses

Substitute asbestos mats

Sufficient supply of rubber tubing, corks and rubber bungs

Sufficient supply of pH meters, laboratory power packs, crocodile clips and leads

Sufficient supply of digital multi-meters

Sufficient supply of salt bridges

Models of ionic crystals, graphite, diamond, buckminsterfullerene and ice

Access to fume cupboard fitted with safety screen

Set of cork borers

Glass tubing and capillary tubing

Glass cutters

Crucibles and lids

Polystyrene cups with lids

Deflagrating spoons

Electrolysis cells

First aid kit

Eye wash equipment

Access to a shower or fast running water

Sufficient fire extinguishers, sand buckets and fire blankets

Heating mantles

Indicator papers

Magnetic stirrers and followers (‘fleas’)

Pestles and mortars

Clay triangles

Refrigerator

Dishwasher for glassware

Drying rack

Silica plates for TLC

U.V. lamp

Spills/matches

Sufficient gas syringes

Paper towel dispenser

Technician’s tool kit (scissors, screwdriver, pliers, knives etc.)

Trolleys and trays

Set of HAZCARDS and relevant safety information

Access to word processing, spreadsheet, graphing and Internet facilities

2. Equipment for each pair of students

2 x safety goggles or face masks

2 x aprons or other protective clothing

1 set of ‘Quickfit’ apparatus comprising:

1 x 10 cm³round bottom flask

1 x 50 cm³ round bottom flask

1 x 100 cm³ round bottom flask

1 x Liebig water condenser

1 x air condenser

1 x separating funnel

2 x stoppers

1 x thermometer holder

1 x reduction adaptor

1 x two-neck adaptor

1 x vented bed adaptor

1 x distillation head with thermometer socket

1 x cork ring

1 x -10 - +110 ^oC thermometer

1 x 10 cm³ pipette

1 x 50 cm³ burette

1 x pipette filler

1 x 100 cm³ volumetric flask

1 x weighing bottle

3 x 100 cm³ conical flasks

1 x 100 cm³ measuring cylinder

1 x 10 cm³ measuring cylinder

1 x set of beakers (400 cm³, 100 cm³ and 25 cm³)

1 x test-tube rack

1 x test-tube holder

1 x Bunsen burner, tripod and gauze

1 x water pump

1 x Buchner flask with glass sintered filter and rubber seal

1 x filter funnel with necessary filter papers

1 x spatula

1 x glass stirring rod

1 x white tile

1 x set of ‘Molymod’ student organic modelling set

1 x ‘Molymod’ student shapes of molecules modelling set

3. Chemicals

(i) Elements

Hydrogen (cylinder or prepared in situ)

Graphite rods

Oxygen

Sodium

Magnesium

Aluminium

Silicon

Red phosphorus

Sulfur

Chlorine (cylinder or prepared in situ from KMnO₄ / conc. HCl)

Iron

Nickel

Copper

Zinc

Bromine

Tin

Lead

Iodine

(ii) Volumetric solutions (0.100 mol dm^-3 unless stated otherwise)

Ammonia

Ethanoic acid

Hydrochloric acid

Potassium manganate(VII), KMnO₄, (0.0200 mol dm^-3)

Sodium hydroxide

Sodium thiosulfate

(iii) Aqueous reagents

Dilute ammonia

Dilute hydrochloric acid

Dilute sodium hydroxide

Dilute nitric acid

Silver nitrate

Potassium chromate(VI)

Potassium dichromate(VI)

Potassium manganate(VII)

Copper(II) sulfate

Barium chloride

Starch

Saturated calcium hydroxide (lime water) solution

Bromine water

Saturated sodium carbonate solution

Various acid/base indicators including: universal, phenolphthalein and methyl orange

(iv) Inorganic compounds

Aluminium chloride

Aluminium oxide

Aluminium sulfate

Ammonia (concentrated)

Ammonium iron(II) sulfate

Barium chloride

Brass foil

Calcium chloride (anhydrous)

Calcium hydroxide

Copper(II) carbonate

Copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate

Copper(II) sulfate (anhydrous)

Hydrochloric acid (concentrated)

Iron(III) chloride

Iron(III) nitrate

Iron(III) sulfate

Lead bromide

Lithium chloride

Magnesium chloride

Magnesium oxide

Manganese(II) sulfate

Nichrome wire

Nitric acid (concentrated)

Phosphoric acid

Phosphorus(V) chloride

Phosphorus(V) oxide

Potassium bromide

Potassium chloride

Potassium chromate

Potassium dichromate

Potassium hydroxide

Potassium iodide

Potassium managanate(VII)

Potassium sodium tartrate

Potassium thiocyanate

Silicon dioxide

Silver nitrate

Sodium carbonate

Sodium chloride

Sodium hydrogen carbonate

di-sodium hydrogen phosphate

Sodium hydrogensulfite

Sodium hydroxide (pellets)

Sodium nitrite

Sodium peroxide

Sodium sulfate

Sodium sulfite

Sulfur dioxide

Sulfuric acid (concentrated)

Zinc sulfate

(v) Organic compounds

Benzoic acid

Benzylamine

Bromobenzene

1-bromobutane

2-bromobutane

2-bromo-2-methylbutane

Castor oil

Camphor

1-chlorobutane

Cyclohexane

Cyclohexene

Cyclohexanol

Ethanol

Ethanoic anhydride

Glucose

Heptane

Hexane

Hexan-1-ol

2-hydroxybenzoate

1-iodobutane

Methanol

Methylamine

Methylbenzene

Methylene blue

2-methylpropan-2-ol

Naphthalene-2-ol

Nitrobenzene

Pentan-2-one

Pentan-3-one

Propan-1-ol

Propan-2-ol

Propanone

Propanal

Phenol

Phenolphthalein

Phenylamine

Salicylic acid