Common Laboratory Equipment and Apparatus

Vocabulary flashcards identifying essential chemistry laboratory equipment, apparatus, and their functions.

Graduated Cylinder

A narrow cylindrical laboratory vessel with marked lines used to measure the volume of a liquid.

Syringe

An instrument commonly used for transferring liquid chemicals or solvents in the organic laboratory.

Micropipette

A specialized pipettor used to measure and deliver small volumes of liquid, starting at $1\,μ L$.

Burette

A volumetric measuring glassware with a graduation scale, stopcock, and valve at the tip, used in analytical chemistry to dispense variable volumes of liquid during titrations.

Acid Burette

A type of burette in which the barrel of the stopcock is made of glass.

Alkali Burette

A type of burette in which the barrel of the stopcock is made with a rubber tube.

Volumetric Flask

A laboratory flask calibrated to contain a precise volume at a specific temperature, used for precise dilutions and preparing standard solutions.

Triple Beam Balance

A mechanical balance consisting of a pan, counter weight, base, pointer, and multiple beams with sliding riders used to measure mass.

Double Pan Balance

Also known as a platform balance, a measuring device with two pans used for weighing substances or objects, usually in grams.

Analytical Balance

A highly sensitive digital balance enclosed in a draft shield, featuring a balance pan, level indicator, and tare button for precise mass measurements.

Test Tube

A cylindrical glass container with a spherical bottom and vertical sides, widely used by chemists to handle chemicals in qualitative experiments and assays.

Test Tube Brush

A specialized cleaning tool designed to clean the inside of test tubes and other narrow glassware.

Watch Glass

A circular concave piece of glass used as a surface to evaporate liquids, hold solids during weighing, heat small amounts of substances, or cover beakers.

Spot Plate

Also called a reaction or culture plate, a plate containing 12 or 24 depressions (wells) functioning as tiny test tubes to perform small-scale chemical reactions.

Microwell Plate

Also known as a microtiter plate, a flat plate featuring multiple wells used as miniature test tubes in analytical research and clinical diagnostic testing.

Petri Dish

A shallow cylindrical, round glass or plastic dish used in laboratories to culture microorganisms and cells in isolation.

Beaker

A versatile cylindrical vessel used to hold and heat liquids, serve as a reaction vessel, or act as a hot water bath.

Florence Flask

A flask featuring a round body, long neck, and often a flat bottom, designed for uniform heating, boiling, distillation, and swirling.

Round-Bottom Flask

A flask with a spherical base that evenly distributes stress across its surface, making it resistant to fracturing under vacuum and ideal for reflux setups and chemical synthesis.

Reagent Bottle

Also called a media bottle, a container made of glass or plastic topped by caps or stoppers, designed to store liquid or powder chemicals.

Vial

A small glass or plastic bottle used to hold medication as liquids, powders, or capsules, or as a scientific sample vessel.

Capillary Tube

A very thin tube made of rigid plastic or glass used to collect liquid samples via capillary action against gravity.

Wash Bottle

A flexible polyethylene squeeze bottle equipped with a nozzle and internal dip tube, used to rinse laboratory glassware with solvents like deionized water or acetone.

Forceps

Handheld instruments functioning as laboratory tweezers, used to pick up and manipulate small items that cannot be handled with fingers.

Glass Tubing

Hollow glass rods that can be cut, bent, and stretched to connect various pieces of laboratory equipment.

Rubber Tubing

Flexible and resilient tubing made of natural or synthetic rubber, used for fluid and gas flow lines.

Funnel

A channel device that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used to guide liquid or powder into a small container opening.

Calorimeter

An apparatus consisting of inner and outer insulated vessels, a thermometer, and a stirrer, used to measure temperature changes and heat transfer during reactions.

pH Meter

An electronic device with a measuring probe used to calculate the acidity or alkalinity (pH) of a liquid.

Centrifuge

An apparatus that spins sample tubes around a fixed axis to separate substances of different densities via radial centrifugal acceleration.

Evaporating Dish

A shallow porcelain or borosilicate dish used to evaporate excess solvent from a liquid to produce a concentrated solution or precipitate.

Mortar and Pestle

A two-part set consisting of a bowl and club-shaped tool used to crush or grind solid chemicals into fine powder.

Magnetic Stirrer

A laboratory device that uses a rotating magnetic field to rapidly spin an immersed stir bar to mix solutions automatically.

Distilling Flask

A specialized flask used in distillation setups to separate liquid mixtures based on differences in boiling points.

Condenser

A glass apparatus with concentric inner and outer tubes that uses flowing cold water to cool hot gas vapors back into liquid during distillation.

Buchner Funnel

A specialized funnel with a perforated plate, used together with a filtering flask to perform vacuum filtration.

Separatory Funnel

Glassware used in liquid-liquid extractions to separate components of a mixture into two immiscible solvent layers of different densities.

Crucible

A heat-resistant container with a cover, used to hold chemical compounds when heating them to extremely high temperatures.

Clay Triangle

A triangular structure placed on a ring stand to hold a crucible while it is being heated over a burner.

Heating Mantle

An electrical apparatus used to apply uniform heat directly to round laboratory containers as an alternative to liquid baths.

Wire Gauze

A woven mesh sheet placed on top of a tripod to support glassware and distribute heat evenly during heating.

Cork Borer

A metal tool used to cut clean holes through cork or rubber stoppers for inserting glass tubing.