Safety
The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has prepared "Laboratory Directions for Chemistry Students" that includes a section on safety and which may be obtained from Dan Parker in Room 225.
The general procedures in that document apply to this course as do the additional more specific safety rules listed below.

Additional Safety Rules for Chem-439

1. If the fire alarm sounds, leave the building immediately and assemble in a group in the parking lot between the student union and the football field and remain there until the TA is sure no one is missing. Do not ask for or wait for permission to go or for your neighbor. Just go.
2. Always conduct yourself in a professional manner. Have fun while working in the laboratory, but there will be NO jokes, running, or playing around or similar activities that might be dangerous to you or your neighbor.
3. You must learn where the safety equipment is and how to use each item the first day in class. In the event of an emergency, you should use whatever you need to address the emergency. Again, you do not need to ask for permission to respond to an emergency. Usually, your response will be to advise your TA and then follow his/her instructions. As a general rule, and if time permits, students should not attempt to provide first aid but should concentrate on contacting a professional (phone numbers below) in that area.
4. No consumption of food (including gum) or beverages or application of cosmetics will be allowed.
5. You are not to perform any unassigned experiments.
6. Do not use your mouth to fill pipets.
7. If something is spilled on you, wash it off immediately with lots and lots and lots of water, and then report the incident to the TA. Clean up the spill later according to instructions from the TA.
8. Uncontrolled long hair or clothing (loose sleeves, ties, jewelry) that might come in contact with a flame or become entangled in mechanical equipment will not be permitted. You will not be permitted to work in the lab without protection for your feet (no sandals, for example).
9. Never heat a closed system without first checking with the TA.
10. Never heat flammable materials with an open flame or near an ignition source.
11. Do not heat or mix any thing near your face (or anyone's face).
12. Review the hazards of all reagents for an experiment before you start, so you know how to respond to an emergency. The MATERIAL SAFETY DATA SHEETS (MSDS) for each reagent we use is available in Dan Parker's office on the second floor (Room 225 or ask at the Chemistry Office). You are encouraged to review any MSDS any time you have a question. You should also note that a considerable amount of safety information is on the reagents labels and in the Merck Index. Read them as appropriate before you use a reagent. Refer any questions to your TA, your professor. Safety related questions may be included on quizzes, tests and exams.
13. Do not rub your eyes with your hands. Your hands are frequently contaminated.
14. Protective clothing (lab coat) is required. You will not be permitted to work in the lab in shorts and without protection for your legs and feet.
15. You cannot tell when glass and other objects are hot by looking at them. Be careful and don't get burned by trying to pick up something that is hot.
16. Do not store reagents near a sink or leave them near the balance where they will be in the way and get knocked over. Return all reagents to their proper location as soon as possible after you are finished with them. Be sure everything is put up properly before you leave and that you have left nothing in the balance room, in a fume hood or at some other location.
17. Be sure you know where the safety equipment is located so you can find and use each item in an emergency (power off and the lab is dark, for example).
18. Be sure that, in an emergency, you know how to turn off all of the utilities (gas, water, electricity) you have been using.
19. Never attempt to identify an unknown by smelling or tasting it as recommended in some textbooks. Use moist litmus paper or an indicator to test for ammonium fumes.
20. Use the appropriate safety equipment (safety shield, gloves, fume hood, shower, eye wash, etc.) and supplies as needed. Be sure any supplies you use are promptly replaced so they are available for the next emergency. It may be you again.
21. Label all containers containing chemicals with the name or formula of the material, the date and your initials. Read all chemical labels prior to use. Be sure you know what you are using.
22. Do not store chemicals near non-compatible chemicals (acids with bases or oxidizers with fuels, for example) even for short periods of time.
23. Transport and dispose of all chemicals properly. If you are not sure how to do so, ask your TA. Don't take a chance.
24. Do not use chipped or broken glassware. Broken glassware will not be accepted at the end of the course and should be replaced during check-in or as soon as it is broken.
25. Do not operate electrical equipment with wet hands.
26. Do not block aisles or fire exits.
27. If at all possible, do not wear contact lens to the laboratory. If you must, be sure the TA is informed so special precautions are used. No skin piercing jewelry will be permitted in the laboratory.
28. The EMERGENCY telephone numbers are:


a) SERIOUS EMERGENCY - DIAL 911 FOR AMBULANCE AND HOSPITAL
b) Urgent but Not an emergency - Dial 453-4456 for the student health center emergency/urgent care office.
c) Other - Contact Dan Parker (453-6413) in Neckers, Room 225.

1. Lab sections will meet only at the scheduled times. There will be no makeup sessions, so plan to use all of your available time effectively. If you do, you will have plenty of time to finish all of the required experiments. If you do not come to the lab well prepared or if you do not use your time effectively, you will have less time and therefore, will be less likely to make a good grade. This is as it should be, for planning and self-discipline are critical parts of being a good employee.
2. Most experiments will need to be repeated if you are to get your best results. You must record all data in your lab notebook using the correct number of significant figures. You may discard any of your values when you report your results. It is a good idea to use the same balance for all weighing of a single experiment.
3. We will grade the results you turn in "as received" and will not permit you to make changes after the grade has been given and still receive full credit for the experiment. Therefore, you should be sure you report your results the way you want them graded the first time.
4. Use distilled water from your wash bottle for the final rinse of glassware that has previously been washed and rinsed with tap water. Do not rinse glassware at the distilled water tap. Use distilled water to prepare all solutions requiring water even when the directions only specify water.
5. Never assume glassware or other materials are clean unless they are so marked.
6. Label all of your solutions and reagents to avoid mix up. The label should have the name or the formula of
the material in the container, the date and your initials as a minimum.
7. Keep all concentrated acids and bases in the fume hoods. When you need to use dilute acids or bases, take
your clean container to the hood, pour out the amount of the concentrated reagent you need, dilute
it in the hood and dilute them before disposal in the sink.
8. The equipment, glassware and supplies you will be using in these courses are very expensive. Take care of them. You are responsible for all breakage of glassware and for any other damages above the normal wear.
9. It is essential that you keep all common work areas (such as fume hoods, balance areas, etc.) and your work area clean. All spills should be cleaned up and reported to your TA immediately. You should assume that all horizontal surfaces are contaminated with a corrosive and will destroy your clothing if you sit or rest your arms on them. Allow time to clean up at the end of each lab period.
10. You should be THOROUGHLY FAMILIAR WITH EACH EXPERIMENT BEFORE YOU START IT in the laboratory. You should know all of the chemical reactions and why each reagent is being used. You should continuously observe each experiment for reasonable properties and consult your TA if anything looks strange or is unexpected. You can usually obtain this knowledge by reading the appropriate chapter in your textbook, the related parts of the references in this manual (they are on 2 hr reserve in the library) and most important by studying the experiment itself while asking yourself about each step.
11. Most modern balances have a "tare" option. If you elect to use the tare option, rather that the recommended weighing by difference option, be sure someone else doesn't change the tare between your weightings. It is a good idea to use the same balance for all of your weightings on a given day. We strongly discourage the use of weighing paper. However, if you do use weighing paper, be absolutely certain that you do not spill any of the materials you weigh in the balance.
12. Primary references:


a. Richard Saferstein, "Criminalistics, an Introduction to Forensic Science", 8th ed., Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-013827-4, 2001 & THE ASSOCIATED LABORATORY MANUAL.
b. Wayne R. Ott. "Environmental Statistics and Data Analysis", Lewis Publishers, ISBN 0-87371-848-8, 1995
c. Fairless, B. et. al., "Chem.-434 and the Chem-230 Laboratory Manuals", Saluki Book Store, East Grand, Carbondale, IL.



13. Every instrument has a logbook. You are to read the logbook to see if the instrument was working properly for the last user. If so, you should then sign and date the logbook after you have read the appropriate pages and before you start using the instrument. When you are finished, log out and document any problems you had with the instrument. If an instrument fails while you are using it, advise the TA and follow his/her directions. You should not be using any instrument if you haven't signed the logbook.

Definitions and Conversion Factors

1. gram (g) - there are 453.6 grams in a pound and 1000 g in a kilogram. It is a unit of mass.
2. centimeter(cm) - there are 2.54 cm in an inch and 100 cm in a meter. It is a unit of length.
3. second (sec) - there are 60 seconds in a minute. It is a unit of time.
4. area - area is a length squared. If you know the conversion factors for units of length (2.54 cm/inch or 12 inches/foot), you can calculate the area conversion factors so you don't have to learn them. For example, how many square centimeters are there in one square mile? The answer is (2.54 cm/inch)² x (12 inch/foot)² x (5280 feet/mile)² = (6.4516 cm²/in²) (144 in²/ft²) (27878400 ft²/mi²) = 2.59 x 1010 cm²/mile² . One square mile is a section, which contains 640 acres. Therefore, an acre contains 43,560 square feet.
5. volume - length cubed is volume. Common units are cm³ which is a ml ( There are 1000 milliliters in a liter) and gallons (there are 231 inch³ in a gallon.). Therefore, there are (2.54 cm/inch)³ x 231 in³ /gal = 3784 cm³/gal or about 3.8 liters per gallon. In Europe, a liter of gasoline costs about the same as a gallon costs in the U.S. Engineers commonly use the acre-foot (one acre covered to a depth of one foot) as a measure for large volumes (flow of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, capacity of a lake). An acre-foot is 43560 cubic feet.
6. velocity - length (or distance) per unit time is velocity. The common units are cm/sec and miles/hour.
7. acceleration - the change in velocity per unit of time is acceleration. So the units are length/time squared. The common units are cm/sec² and feet/sec².
8. force is mass times acceleration. (F = ma which is Newton's second law of motion). The common units are the dyne (g cm/sec²) and the newton (kg m/sec²)
9. Energy - Work and heat are forms of energy. Energy is a force acting through a distance or force x length. The units of measure are the erg (cm x dyne or a cm times g cm/sec² = g cm²/sec²), the joule (kg m²/sec²), the calorie (there are 4.184 joules in a calorie) and the British Thermal Unit or BTU (one BTU will increase the temperature of one pound of water one Fahrenheit degree.). The student should also recall that energy may be related to the frequency of electromagnetic radiation via Planck's constant or E = hg (ergs = 6.62 x 10^-27g) where g is the frequency in cycles per second.
10. power - power is the rate of doing work. Therefore, the units are work per unit time such as a joule/sec (which is one watt) and which is also equal to one volt multiplied by one amp.
11. coulomb - A coulomb is a unit of electrical charge. An amp is a unit of electrical current and is a flow of one coulomb per second. Since the charge on an electron is 1.6 x 10^-19 coulombs then Avogadro's number of electrons will have a charge of (1.6 x 10^-19 coulombs/electron x 6.023 x 10²³ electrons/mole) = about 96485 coulombs/mole. This number is one Faraday. It may be used as a conversion factor between chemical mass units and electrical units of measure.
12. Concentration: You should know about molarity, ppm and ppb and how to prepare solutions.
13. In summary, by learning the 11 groups of definitions and the conversion factors given above, you can relate length, mass and time to area, volume, velocity, acceleration, force, energy and power in commonly used electrical, mechanical and chemical terms which will allow you to understand the different terms and to easily communicate with most scientists.