<story><title>How to clean chemistry glassware</title><url>https://www.chem.rochester.edu/notvoodoo/pages/how_to.php?page=clean_glassware</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rubicks</author><text>Ex-undergrad-assistant in a organic synthesis lab, here. I am extremely familiar with glass cleaning procedures, having done it nearly daily for one long semester.&lt;p&gt;Base bath is how you clean glassware.&lt;p&gt;The base bath was a _saturated_ solution of KOH (potassium hydroxide) in a 10-gallon PTFE (molded &amp;quot;teflon&amp;quot;). You knew it was saturated by the KOH precipitate at the bottom.&lt;p&gt;You take your &amp;quot;dirties&amp;quot;, making absolutely sure they had no residual acid on them, and ever so slowly, ease them into the bath. 24 or 36 hours later, remove them and repeat with the next batch.&lt;p&gt;After a few dozen cycles, you have to change out the base for fresh stuff. For that, you needed a face shield, shoulder gloves, and extremely steady hands.&lt;p&gt;Tedious, dangerous work.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to clean chemistry glassware</title><url>https://www.chem.rochester.edu/notvoodoo/pages/how_to.php?page=clean_glassware</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>showerst</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting to me how concentrated HF is just universally acknowledged as one of the &amp;#x27;big bads&amp;#x27; of chemistry labs.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve run into &amp;quot;Yes HF works here but SERIOUSLY DON&amp;#x27;T&amp;quot; in so many different contexts and processes. Sounds like a lovely thing to keep a nice distance from!</text></comment>