Is your reaction vapor “stuck” or are you losing precious solvent? 20-year master glassblower Zoe W explains why your condenser might be the hidden bottleneck in your lab and how to pick the perfect one for your chemistry.
Mastering the assembly of standard taper joints is an essential lab skill. This guide explores the ‘Bottom-Up’ construction rule, the nuances of using vacuum grease, and critical safety techniques to prevent glass stress and ‘frozen’ joints, ensuring a secure and leak-free reaction setup.
In organic synthesis, interface economics matter. We break down when to rely on a classic three-neck flask, when to use a Claisen adapter, and why investing in a four-neck flask is the professional upgrade your reaction setup needs.
A comprehensive guide to maintaining laboratory glassware. Learn the pros and cons of vacuum grease vs. PTFE sleeves, proper cleaning techniques, and emergency procedures for safely unsticking seized ground glass joints.
It’s not just about aesthetics—it’s about survival under pressure. We dive into the physics behind flask shapes, the “2-neck vs. 3-neck” debate, and why the geometry of your glassware is your first line of defense in vacuum safety.
Is your Vigreux column failing to deliver the purity you expect? Most chemists assume more “teeth” mean better separation, but the truth is often hidden in thermal management. In this guide, a 20-year glassblower breaks down the common misconceptions about Vigreux efficiency, the risks of column flooding, and why proper insulation is the real key to distillation success.
From the outside, a fractional distillation column doesn’t look like much. It’s usually just a piece of glass or metal sitting between a boiling flask and a condenser. But if you’ve ever tried to separate two liquids with similar boiling points, you find out quickly that what happens inside the column matters a lot. Textbooks … Read more
Have you ever had that moment of quiet despair in the lab? Your reaction is ready, you reach for a new addition funnel, try to fit it onto your flask, and… it doesn’t fit. Or worse, it fits, but wobbles just enough to make you nervous. The box says “24 mm standard joint”, so why … Read more
Most people first meet a ground-glass joint in the context of a finished piece of equipment: a condenser, a round-bottom flask, an adapter pulled from a drawer. The joint looks complete and inevitable, as if it has always existed in that shape. But a ground-glass joint is not a given. It is something that has … Read more
An entry-level guide for students stepping into the organic lab for the first time. On your first real day in an organic lab, you probably won’t start with NMR or a Schlenk line. You’ll start with something that looks almost boring: putting together a reflux setup. A round-bottom flask on a heating mantle, a condenser … Read more