Cleaning glassware - Practical Advise?

[NeoSynthesis]

Hiya Beez.. I've read a few posts on this pesky little issue, lots of good advise but most of it seems to "look good on paper"!

SWIM has gone out & bought 2 gallons of Acetone to clean glassware. First he tried pouring the shit into the flasks, glassware & scrubbing. Then he tried applying it to a sponge-like thing and scrubbing. All SWIM's efforts have consistently resulted in a thin (almost oily looking) film over the glass once it's dried, not to mention that the glassware stunk from acetone! I know for a fact that SWIM's acetone is just that. Oh and also.. not to mention the fact that after SWIM's numerous attempts (all of which were a royal pain in the ass - hardly something SWIM could see anyone doing regularly), SWIM was nautious, head-spinning & had to get out of the house for a few hours!

At this point, SWIM's considering using conventional glassware cleaners aka: Dishwashing soap. SWIM has read that some of the stuff can be abbrasive on glassware hence the post! Please help SWIM (if possible) with concrete, step-by-step advice, as well as pointers as to what SWIM could've been doing wrong.

Thanks in advance to all!

Peace out-

[wyndowlicker]

HEy now,



 Dump in some NaOH and swish it around with some H2O and its on like donkey Kong!

[NeoSynthesis]

Do I make my own or buy it? Is there a detergent/cleaner thats available retail that has this stuff as active? More info? Thanks!

Peace out -

[abolt]

I like to make my own..........I don't trust thart store bought stuff to do the job.

Question: If you don't know where to get NaOH.......how did you get your flask dirty in the first place?

[NeoSynthesis]

I didn't say I didn't know where to get it, i just asked if i should buy it ready-made, or make it. Now that that's been cleared up - what concentration?

lata

[abolt]

Try a 50% solution

[DjTime]

What are you trying to get out of that flask? I have found
that acetone works wonders, but not always. I use a very
little amount of liquid dish soap with very hot water and
swirl it around for a couple seconds and that seems to get
whatever else out that the acetone wouldn't get. After I
use the dish soap I let air dry then I use a little acetone
after that to get any residue from the soap  out, then heat
dry on low. You will find that a variety of things to keep
around the house (cleaning wise) will do well. As I said
before if you do use dish soap, make sure to rinse with a
little acetone afterwords. There shouldn't be any oily stuff
left after you rinse with acetone AND blow dry.

 -peace

[mindlib]

Would it better to distill the acetone, if someone is using it not only for synthesis, also for cleaning the glassware ?
I thought, someone go out, buy acetone at different places OTC and distill it to see how much black crap or other unwanted stuff is in it and to choose at least the product with the less unwanted stuff in it? and surely distill the acetone also when using it for cleaning the glassware with the best-pure product?
Could not the oily layer on the surface of the glass is the rest of the black crap?
regards

[hest]

deconX take's most off it (but is limitid to us labbees)
Soaking in nitric acid usual take most of it.
A mixture of Sulfuric acid and 30% H2O2 (2:1) takes it all (including your new shirt)

[moo]

With H₂SO₄ + H₂O₂ you can lose more than your shirt.

Post 433628

(calcium: "Pirahna Solution?", Chemicals & Equipment)

Post 433708

(calcium: "pirahna solution + acetone", Chemicals & Equipment)

[hest]

ohh yes, but it works greath :-) When you mix it the solution become damm hot (150°C ?) paper will burn when you add a drop.
But yor'r right. This is not for the beginner. In my lab wee shift's to doo it, nobody wants the job but it have to bee done.

[Pimpo]

From my experience I would recommend to clean glassware once with acetone + scrubbing and once with distilled H2O + scrubbing. Which comes first doesn't really matter. If no tars are involved this gives a clean, shiny result in almost any case (I don't make any dope, but do all kinds of syntheses for fun, no kidding). If necessary, repeat the whole process. The idea is like to remove the non-polar stuff with the acetone and the polar stuff with H2O. If your acetone is indeed crap, I'd recommend ethyl acetate, it's cheap and basically non-toxic. Toluene gives excellent results too, but it's kind of nasty. Hope this helps.

[RoundBottom]

the one piece of advise i can offer is; when distilling ketone, and at the end of the distillation, get your glassware cleaned AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.  once that tar hardens, it's a sumn'a bitch to get out.

within 10 minutes, and using leather work gloves (not rubber gloves, they'll melt on your hands), decant the tar into a metal bucket or (if you're brave) a glass bottle.  then, cool the flask in some room temperature water, and pour some acetone in, swirl about.  presto! clean flask.

if you wait too long and it cools, just fill the flask with acetone, cover the top with saran wrap (or a stopper, but make sure it's cool, otherwise the cooling will stick that stopper tight), and let it sit overnight.

[aleph]

I agree with RB.  Don't let the dishes wait for tomorrow.  On one particularly stubborn case (I was warned but too dumb and impatient to do it the cleaner, slower way), I was forced to allow a flask to soak for several days in 10% NaOH to get the dang thing clean.  Hint:  don't try to save time by isomerizing safrole with KOH and CaO as per Rhodium's "The Isomerization of Safrole: A Review".  What he calls a "downside" to this method is in reality a nightmare.

[hest]

Roundbottom and Aleph
My mother would love iff I married yor gues :-)

[halfkast]

Detergents, sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, hot water.

I always prepare a large HDPE container of NaOH solution before any type of reaction.
I have crystalline NaOH on hand in case I need more concentration.

I place most things in the NaOH container following a reaction, from any glass, jars and containers used, to tape, paper towels and pieces of cloth.
It's really easy and your always prepared for most mishaps from spills, it's like doing the major part of clean-up before the reaction has started.

skewers I burn underneath a ceiling fan.

NaOH stinks, I hate it. It's slimey and I've found I waste a lot of water when using it to remove it.

Sometimes a second short (or longer, maybe 2hrs) soak & scrub is done using another basin of warm-hot water and either NaOH, or sodium carbonate or both. Especially if the water is visibly dirty or remnants remain on any surfaces.

Rinse of cleaning agents.

Finally, a nice smelling kitchen detergent or laundry detergent is followed, thats really easy too.

===========

-All papers are for the toilet.
-Always wash much more cleaning agents down the sink than reagents.


Good luck mate.

[NeoSynthesis]

I read somewhere, don't recall if it was Rhodium's site or maybe one of the writeups, that a bleech bath does the trick for most glass cleaning chores. At this point I've tried acetone multiple times as well as soap & water. I've learned the hard way that prevention (eg. getting off my lazy ass & cleaning right after the reaction) is worth a pound of cure (what's required in my present situation after the shit has cacked on to the flasks & glassware). I'm begining to think that maybe this is why everyone seems to have such good results with acetone. I mean if used right after the reaction, anything works!

My fuckup! Any suggestions/hints on the bleech scenario would be appreciated.

Peace out -  

[lugh]

Another cleaning method that works very well if caustic won't remove the tar is to heat the glassware in an electric self cleaning oven set to clean for a few hours, allow it to cool, then heat it overnight in a HDPE bucket filled with tap water and some sodium percarbonate bleach, using immersion heaters as the heat source    Then a simple scrub and rinse will remove the tar that you thought was never going to come off  

[abolt]

I've learned the hard way that prevention (eg. getting off my lazy ass & cleaning right after the reaction) is worth a pound of cure (what's required in my present situation after the shit has cacked on to the flasks & glassware). I'm begining to think that maybe this is why everyone seems to have such good results with acetone. I mean if used right after the reaction, anything works!

Neo, Acetone has a B.P. of 56. Celcius, make sure your flask has cooled below this Temp.

http://www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/msds/acetone.htm

[awayman]

Swim has found that some glassware has just seen its time here and is better off being destroyed. Drying plates more so than all others. Some of the chemicals being used and the extreem temps the plates are subjected to seems to lock whatever (HCL,NaOH, ect.) in the pores of the glass and is damn near impossible to get out. (Yes the glass is porous, heat some Hypo in a boiling flask at high temp for a while, the glass didn't break but acid was coming out of the side of the flask with it intact) So after prolonged usage of the drying plates SWIM will buy new one from time to time. Note: The old ones can be crushed and heated for splendid glass blowing fun! .....Now as for flasks, beakers, and test tubes SWIM has used a method of dh20 with equal iso alcohol and bring to boil the alcohol will evap quick but it will clean up before leaving, your left with dh20 pour out while hot, rinse with tone and dry with lint free towel.

[ScuzZ]

Swims always had good to very good results with pressurised steam cleaning and then autoclaving(sterilizing)

[carcrash]

I had a couple screwups that refused to come clean. Naoh solution got them clean even though it took a few weeks and solution changes. It does eat a small amount of the glass, but screw having to buy new glass if at all possible.

[8ball]

Depending on how readily avail your stocks of h3p03 are i find that is the best cleaner i have come across, you dont need a great deal and if done straight away it makes the job alot easier.
                       8ball