Lab

1. The Importance of the Laboratory Notebook

Although a personal, working record, the laboratory notebook contains the most immediate and detailed description of experimental work. It is a formal, permanent document and can be the last definitive resort in cases of doubt or conflict, such as differing reports by others and questions of priority or patents. For this reason, certain practices are standard, and you will be expected to learn and use them in this course.

2. Standard Laboratory Notebook Practices
a. A bound (stitched), full-size notebook is used. It may be ruled, quad-ruled, or unruled, depending on the preference of the author.
b. Notes are to be made directly in the notebook in INK. Record everything that you do or observe during your experimental work as soon as is consistent with safety and the success of your work. You should be writing in your notebook continuously during an experiment—do not wait until the end of the period and then attempt to recall everything you did.
c. Data should never be recorded on loose scraps of paper.
d. Once entered into the notebook, nothing is removed, erased, or obliterated. A single line is drawn through words or figures to indicate that they are invalid. If space is available, the new entry may be written directly above the old. If a whole section is to be marked out, use a single diagonal line through it. The reason for any extensive change should be given in a marginal note and initialed by the author.
e. Notes should be as brief as is consistent with clarity. They should be organized as far as foresight permits, and as neat as possible.
f. Both the date and the name of any person(s) with whom the work is performed should be included.

3. Preparation of the Laboratory Notebook
Before coming to lab, you should familiarize yourself thoroughly with the materials and procedures that will be used, and you should formalize and record that familiarity in the laboratory notebook. The attached sample pre-lab pages illustrate several critical features. Some of these are very straightforward: the title (which can be taken from the laboratory handouts) and purpose (which should be re-written by you), the names of anyone you collaborate with during the experiment (i.e., your lab partner), the date, any pre-lab exercises assigned in the lab handout.
Two pieces of preparation will demand – and repay – somewhat more time. The Table of Reagents should be filled out, with an entry for every substance that you expect to use during the afternoon, including molecular weights, concentrations where applicable, and notes on safety hazards associated with each substance. Most of this information will be present in the lab handout. Your job here is to collect it into a convenient reference, augment it where necessary (for example, chemical names or formulae may appear in the write-up, but not always both; molecular weights may or may not appear in the write-up, etc.) and, in the case of safety hazards, take sufficiently serious notice of them to write them down. While the experiments are chosen to minimize your exposure to truly hazardous substances, many substances can be quite dangerous when mishandled, and you need to be aware of what they are and when you are using them. This is one of the most important functions of your table of reagents; please take it seriously.
The second large piece of preparation work you need to do before lab is a careful review and outline of the procedures you will undertake. You’ll notice that the lab handouts (even those not written by me) are very wordy; conceptual information and technical instruction lie cheek by jowl. Your outline will pull out the bare bones tasks and manipulations, and arrange them in a sensible order. A well-prepared outline will repay the time you put into it in quick, efficient, and safe work at the bench, and in increased intellectual focus while you work.

4. The Split-Page Laboratory Notebook
The sample pages illustrate the use of a technique for laboratory data recording that you may or may not have used before, but that I ask you to use in Chem 201: the split-page laboratory notebook. One side of the notebook (the left-hand pages, as the book lies open) is reserved for data recorded on the spot (except for the Table of Reagents, which appears on the left, but is prepared in advance). The other side (the right-hand pages) contains material that is more narrative and reflective in nature. In Chem 201, this means essentially your pre-lab plan, with space for in-lab observations, insofar as you can anticipate the need for them. In more advanced or independent settings, the right-hand pages might contain formal narratives and conclusions as well. This often results in much blank space, especially on the left. That’s intentional – that space comes in handy for subsequent notation.
Preparation of your notebook according to the Split-Page technique, including a full Table of Reagents and Pre-Lab Plan, constitutes a weekly assignment, upon which your lab grade will substantially depend.

5. Laboratory Notebook Inspections
Your notebook will be checked by the instructor or TA at the beginning of the lab period each week. The instructor or TA will check for the presence of the following items:
A. Title
B. Purpose
C. Table of reagents
D. Pre-Lab Exercises (if any)
E. Pre-Lab Plan
In addition, two formal laboratory notebook inspections will be conducted: one over spring break, and one at the end of the semester. Grades for formal notebook inspections will be assigned based on the quality of fulfillment of the following criteria:
1. The notebook is bound and kept in ink.
2. Pages are numbered and there is a clear and complete table of contents.
3. Pre-lab sections (Title, Purpose, Table of Reagents, Pre-Lab Exercises, and Pre-Lab Plan) are present, placed at the beginning of each experiment, and have been checked by the instructor or TA.
4. Collected and calculated data are reported clearly and organized into neatly written tables and/or plots whenever appropriate. Sufficient notes to explain tables and plots are included.
5. Data are reported with the appropriate number of significant figures and include the proper units.
6. Excised data and comments are not obliterated, but rather are indicated by a single line drawn through them. Large amounts of stricken data and comments are explained in marginal notes, which are initialed by the author.
7. Chemical reactions conducted during the experiment are represented by balanced chemical equations.
8. A brief summary is included at the end of the experiment.

6. Laboratory Reports
Laboratory reporting in Chem 201 is relatively informal, typically consisting of a set of post-lab exercises, calculations, and short-response questions which can be detached from the lab handout and handed in (with your name, your lab partner’s name, your lab section, and the date).
For the following experiments designated with an asterisk (*) below, simply fill out the spaces provided in the lab handouts (data, observations, calculations, questions, etc.) and hand that in as your lab report:

Exp 1: Math and Graphing Lab
Exp. 2: Kinetics and Bleaching of Crystal Violet
Exp 3: Some Examples of Chemical Equilibria: Le Châtelier’s Principle*
Exp. 4: Acid-Base Properties: Titration Curves and Buffers.*
Exp 5: Enthalpy Changes in Chemical Reactions: Hess’s Law #15*
Exp 6: Thermodynamics of Ligand Binding
Exp 7: The Temperature Dependence of an Equilibrium Constant
Exp 8: Electrochemical Puzzles. Metal Corrosion and Anodic Protection. The Golden Penny Experiment*
Exp 9: Electrochemical Cells*
Exp. 10: Structure and Properties of Organic Molecules*

*NOTE: ALL EXPERIMENTS MUST BE COMPLETED AND ALL LABORATORY REPORTS COMPLETED AND RECEIVED IN ORDER TO PASS THE COURSE