Chemistry Lab Glassware List and Their Uses, Practical by Practical

Most chemistry syllabuses, from school certificates to first-year university, build on a small set of practicals. Titration, salt analysis, gas preparation, separation and crystallisation come up again and again. This guide lists the chemistry lab glassware each of those practicals needs, and what each item does. Use it to check a lab list against the work your students actually do.

Almost all of this glass should be borosilicate 3.3. ISO 3585 sets out the properties of this glass. It resists heat and most chemicals far better than soda-lime glass.

Chemistry Lab Glassware for Titration

Titration, or volumetric analysis, is the core quantitative practical in most courses. It needs the most accurate glass in the lab.

• Burette: a long graduated tube with a stopcock. It delivers a titrant drop by drop and shows how much was used. A 50 ml burette is the common teaching size.
• Pipette: a bulb pipette delivers one fixed volume, such as 20 or 25 ml, of the solution being analysed.
• Conical (Erlenmeyer) flask: holds the sample during titration. The sloped sides let students swirl it without splashing.
• Volumetric flask: makes up a standard solution to an exact volume. It has one mark on the neck and a stopper.
• Funnel and white tile: a small funnel fills the burette. A white tile under the flask makes the colour change easier to see.

For titration, state the accuracy class. Class B suits most teaching labs. Class A has tighter limits and suits analytical work. Our burette range includes PTFE and glass stopcock types, as well as automatic zero models.

Glassware for Qualitative and Salt Analysis

Salt analysis and simple tests for ions use small amounts of chemicals and a lot of test tubes.

• Test tubes: for small reactions, colour changes and precipitates.
• Boiling tubes: wider and thicker, for heating over a flame.
• Dropping bottles and droppers: for adding reagents a few drops at a time.
• Watch glasses: for holding small solid samples and for covering a beaker.
• Glass rods: for stirring and for transferring a drop to test paper.

Test tubes break more than any other item. Order them in bulk, along with racks and holders.

Glassware for Gas Preparation

Preparing and testing gases such as oxygen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide needs a closed set of apparatus.

• Flat-bottom or conical flask fitted with a bung, a thistle funnel and a delivery tube.
• Gas jars with cover plates, filled over water in a pneumatic trough.
• Kipp's apparatus for a steady supply of gas in larger labs.
• Woulf bottles and gas washing bottles for drying or cleaning a gas stream, or as safety traps.

The gas preparation category lists gas jars, Kipp's generators, Woulf bottles, troughs and deflagrating spoons.

Glassware for Filtration and Separation

• Filter funnel and filter paper: for gravity filtration of a precipitate.
• Filter (Büchner) flask: a thick-walled flask with a side arm, used for faster filtration under suction.
• Separating funnel: splits two liquids that do not mix, a routine step in organic practicals.
• Beakers: collect the filtrate and hold solutions during mixing.

Glassware for Distillation and Reflux

Distillation separates liquids by boiling point. Reflux heats a reaction for a long time without losing solvent. Both need glass that can take steady heat.

• Round-bottom flask: heats evenly. Choose single-neck or multi-neck to suit the setup.
• Distillation flask: a round-bottom flask with a side tube for the vapour.
• Condenser: Liebig for simple distillation, Allihn or coil types for reflux.
• Fractionating column: separates liquids with close boiling points.
• Adapters, stillheads and thermometer pockets: connect the parts and hold the thermometer.
• Stoppers and joint clips: close spare necks and hold joints together.

Keep every joint in a set to one size series, such as 19/26 or 24/29. Our condensers category lists the main condenser types.

Glassware for Heating, Evaporation and Crystallisation

• Beakers: for warming solutions on a hot plate or tripod and gauze.
• Evaporating basins: for driving off water to leave a solid.
• Crystallising basins: for letting crystals form slowly.
• Crucibles: for strong heating of solids. Most are porcelain, not glass.
• Weighing bottles: for weighing dry solids with a lid on.
• Desiccator: for cooling and storing dried samples away from moisture.

Basins and crucibles sit in our basins and crucibles category.

Quick Reference Table

Care and Safety

Check each piece before use. Do not heat glass that is chipped, scratched or cracked. Heat round-bottom flasks, not volumetric flasks or measuring cylinders, which can lose their accuracy when heated.

Handling, heating and chemical storage should follow your institution's safety officer and the chemical safety data sheets. In US labs, the OSHA laboratory standard, 29 CFR 1910.1450, sets out the chemical hygiene plan labs must keep.

Ordering Chemistry Lab Glassware

Start from the practicals in your syllabus and the number of student groups. For each line, give the item, capacity, glass type, accuracy class for volumetric items, joint size if any, and quantity. Add spares for test tubes, beakers and pipettes.

For the stands, clamps, bottles and other everyday lab equipment around this glass, see our guide to general labware for chemistry. The full chemistry lab equipment category covers balances, burners and safety items too. Prices are quoted on request, by quantity, specification and destination. Send your list through the quote request page.