In the Laboratory
Tethering Bottle Caps Ben Ruekberg Department of Chemistry, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881-1966
When several students are using a variety of reagents at the same time, a potential problem may arise. If two bottles are both open at the same time and the students put the caps down near each other, it is possible that the wrong caps will be affixed to the bottles when the students close the bottles. Obviously, this can lead to contamination or worse, if the reagents (or wastes) are incompatible. There is a way to reduce the confusion of bottle caps,
which may used unless the reactivity of the reagent prohibits it. (Thus, caution and judgment must be used.) Before adding any reagent, simply tether the bottle cap to the bottle with a short length of string secured using a glue gun. There is a possible side benefit to the adoption of this procedure. Bottle caps will not be as easily lost. Thus, when the laboratories are inspected, the proper cap can be quickly restored to any uncapped bottle.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 79 No. 4 April 2002 • Journal of Chemical Education
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