Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Lab Coats

Lab Coats

gardul - 4-11-2014 at 21:22

I tried doing a search and found nothing on the topic.

I was wondering how many of you that practice chemistry at home actually wear a lab coat. If you did where did you get it. What is a good brand?

DraconicAcid - 4-11-2014 at 21:28

Any uniform supply store or medical supply store should sell lab coats. I wear one, but I don't actually do my chemistry at home.

gardul - 4-11-2014 at 21:31

I have one but I need to get a new one. I was just wondering if I was the only odd ball.. or if it was a normal thing.

Magpie - 5-11-2014 at 05:53

I don't have one but was thinking that it would be good to wear one. But I didn't want a white one as that just screams "mad scientist." So I went looking for a blue one, but the local shop didn't have blue. I found a nice blue one on the internet, a "Meta" brand for $37. But the more I thought about it I still felt it was too risky. So I wear an old long-sleeved shirt and a plastic apron. I make sure to take off the apron and gloves when I go out of the lab. Yeah, I know, I'm paranoid.

MrHomeScientist - 5-11-2014 at 06:28

I wear one occasionally, depending on the hazards of what I'm doing at the time. I suppose best practice would be to have it all the time. Labwear (dot) com has very good quality coats in white or colored, men and women's sizes, and free embroidery! Looks like they redesigned their site and the formatting isn't working properly, but that could just be the ancient browser I'm forced to use at work.

careysub - 5-11-2014 at 06:45

You can also go the Tyvek disposable coat/suit route, they are quite cheap:
http://www.labweardirect.com/lab-coats/dupont-tyvek-lab-coat...

HgDinis25 - 5-11-2014 at 08:27

I've never really understood the importance of lab coats. I find that my old shirts are more confortable and just as good preventing anything to contact the skin beneath. And by old I mean the ones I don't mind getting ruined.

When I do wear one (a blue one like those used in bodyshops) it's because I'm about to do something that may go really bad...

diddi - 5-11-2014 at 15:32

I got mine from the university bookshop 30 years ago. it is dirty, has brown acid stains and whatever. but I have never ruined an item of clothing. each pocket is a useful receptacle for an important tool that I can reach for instinctively; safety glasses, glass rod, spare pipette etc

Lab coat: don't leave home without it

Oscilllator - 5-11-2014 at 16:13

I wear a white lab coat that I bought from my school back when I still went there. I also use the pockets to store useful things like plastic spoons and PTFE tape, which I use all the time. Nowadays it is quite dirty and covered in stains but I still wear it because I reckon that each one of those stain adds to the character of my lab coat.

diddi - 5-11-2014 at 16:19

yes I have "special stains" from memorable Grignard explosions and the like. mine is white too. ahhh.... those were the days LOL

Romain - 18-11-2014 at 12:24

Yes, always! I have ruined my shirt every time (that is, twice) I used conc. sulfuric acid without my lab coat... One day I also found that my shirt had large burnt holes in it. Though at the time I didn't have conc. sulfuric acid and I still don't know what caused these holes. They were about the size of my hand... :O. I once spilled some lead dioxide suspension on myself and my lab coat saved my clothes. Though now it has a large brown stain that I can't get rid of.

I usually also wear an old jeans that I don't mind ruining, and safety goggles.

Basically it's more about keeping my clothes intact than for my safety.

Chemosynthesis - 18-11-2014 at 12:48

Never. I have many of them from school, and one particularly fancy one with my name embroidered on it for walking the halls... but at home, I just use a rubber apron I picked up somewhere.

unionised - 18-11-2014 at 12:53

Real labcoats are marked as Personal protective Equipment.
Something like this (or the local legislature's equivalent)
http://www.shieldscientific.com/public/understanding-standar...

If it hasn't got the right markings for the hazard you are working with then you might as well not bother.
Unfortunately, there are lots of companies out there who will happily sell you something that's only fit for a child's dressing-up box.

The Volatile Chemist - 18-11-2014 at 13:02

Quote: Originally posted by Romain

Yes, always! I have ruined my shirt every time (that is, twice) I used conc. sulfuric acid without my lab coat... One day I also found that my shirt had large burnt holes in it. Though at the time I didn't have conc. sulfuric acid and I still don't know what caused these holes. They were about the size of my hand... :O. I once spilled some lead dioxide suspension on myself and my lab coat saved my clothes. Though now it has a large brown stain that I can't get rid of.

I usually also wear an old jeans that I don't mind ruining, and safety goggles.

Basically it's more about keeping my clothes intact than for my safety.

That's funny. I've stained a lot of shirts (Mostly flannels), but never so bad as I had no not wear them anymore. Most are bleaching stains from peroxide or NaClO. I have a pair of brown shorts that I wear that have green stains on them from tetrachlorocuprate ions, but they match the pants color, so it works out fine.
To quote:

Quote:

memorable Grignard explosions

Where did you work? I want to work there.
That's such a funny phrase, though! Honestly, what kind of Grignard Reactions? And I've always been curious, are Grignard reactions colorful, or clear?
Regardless, on the topic of labcoats, below is my typical one:

Woops, Tried to link to it, WAAY too big of a picture of me....

[Edited on 11-18-2014 by The Volatile Chemist]

[Edited on 11-18-2014 by The Volatile Chemist]

Brain&Force - 18-11-2014 at 15:21

My uni sells lab coats, why not check a college campus?

Chemosynthesis - 18-11-2014 at 15:27

/\ This. I could probably wear a fresh, unstained coat once each day from leftovers back from college. Even got a free one at work since we only wear immaculate ones to look important outside the labs. It's funny, in some settings, the cleaner your coat, the more important people think you are since you obviously don't labor.
Even my boss keeps two coats. He said people ignored him in the dirty one, but everyone holds the elevator and calls him "sir" in his clean one.

chemrox - 18-11-2014 at 18:04

I got mine from a chem supplier. The virtue of a lab coat is they are generally nylon and cover my clothes which are cotton or wool, protecting them from acids and dyes. Oh, I don't do much chem at home now...

subsecret - 18-11-2014 at 18:28

My local college sells lab coats, but they're really cheap, disposable ones that come in one size and fit poorly. I just wear everyday clothes, and as a result, I have a nitric acid spot on a pair of my pants.

Edit: Do any of you wash your lab coats? Are you supposed to?

[Edited on 19-11-2014 by Awesomeness]

confused - 18-11-2014 at 18:43

I use my labcoat for reactions that involve corrosives, toxic/hazzardous chemicals and anything that might stain my streetclothes, it provides an additional layer of protection between the hazzard and you, and is easy to remove in the event of an emergency.
I got mine from school, you might want to check out your local college bookstore, they might sell one.

Although i probably shouldn't be using the labcoat i use for biological work in school for home chemistry

I bleach my lab coat once a month or directly after a spill to get rid of any major biological contamination. I wash my lab coat separately from the street clothes after bleaching.

[Edited on 19-11-2014 by confused]

diddi - 19-11-2014 at 03:12

@The Volatile Chemist
grignards get very hot and should be conducted in ice water bath. rapid addition of reagents results in too much heat and one ends up wearing it. they are usually close to clear in colour or some iodine type yellows. funny smells can be entertaining with them too.

Tdep - 19-11-2014 at 04:16

I use my univesity lab coat at home with things like bromine and first time nitrations.

It was a bit embarrasing wearing that lab coat in the chem practicals though. All the hunderds of other students were wearing their identical yet pristine white straight from the shelf coats while mine had odd orange stains and smelt... bad.

I was also the only one to pop the collar on my coat. But thats just because I'm obviously cooler than everyone.

Amos - 19-11-2014 at 07:33

Never worn a labcoat. I suppose I probably look like a drug addict that burns themselves in their stupor, given all the holes I have in my clothing. Oh well.

plante1999 - 19-11-2014 at 08:05

I wear a lab coat when I know only I and people that know my hobby very well can see it. The rest of the time I wear a soldering leather full coat (very weird, agreed) since it protects very well from everything that as gotten on it (including sulphuric) and does not make holes. Then, when I get out of the garage with the face shield people probably only thinks I was soldering something.

Spock - 19-11-2014 at 12:04

I managed to obtain a few slightly worn plastic aprons from my highschool (they were being replaced). As for people seeing it, I spent Halloween night wearing it along with googles and glove. It was quite interesting to have people pay no attention to it.

The Volatile Chemist - 19-11-2014 at 13:35

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

@The Volatile Chemist
grignards get very hot and should be conducted in ice water bath. rapid addition of reagents results in too much heat and one ends up wearing it. they are usually close to clear in colour or some iodine type yellows. funny smells can be entertaining with them too.

Cool. I've read a bit about them from Vogel's Practical Organic Chemistry Revision 3, but obviously it doesn't tell you a huge amount of how they look and practical information about them.

diddi - 19-11-2014 at 19:39

heres a relatively simply expressed article about grignards you might like to read: (not mine)

http://spot.pcc.edu/~chandy/242/PreparationofBenzoicAcid.pdf

j_sum1 - 19-11-2014 at 21:03

Diddi, that is one of the clearest explanations and lab procedures of its kind that I have seen.
Organics is definitely not my field. It has to be spelled out in very simple terms for me to follow. Next time the topic of Grignards comes up, I know where I am going for a translation.
J.

diddi - 19-11-2014 at 21:29

grignards are a really useful and fairly safe organometallic procedure, and I found that pdf a while ago and saved a copy for myself. great synthesis path diagram on about page 3.

almost useful at Y12 level if you had some keen kids and were allowed to use reagents other than water and NaCl in schools these days. hmmm

[Edited on 20-11-2014 by diddi]

j_sum1 - 19-11-2014 at 22:39

Quote: Originally posted by diddi

grignards are a really useful and fairly safe organometallic procedure, and I found that pdf a while ago and saved a copy for myself. great synthesis path diagram on about page 3.

almost useful at Y12 level if you had some keen kids and were allowed to use reagents other than water and NaCl in schools these days. hmmm

[Edited on 20-11-2014 by diddi]

I might do some research, both on Grignards and also the curriculum documents and see if they fit. There is nothing on them in the basic textbook that we are using but it might be something that I can add for my seniors next year. If only to give them some exposure to something that may be useful in the future. And if I learn something in the process, what's the downside?

Edited to add...
I make sure that my students play with more than salt and water. I had one of my Y11 students demonstrating thermites to a class of Y8s earlier this year.

[Edited on 20-11-2014 by j_sum1]

diddi - 20-11-2014 at 03:20

I found that seniors get a lot from looking at the transition elements. explaining colour in transition metal salts is quite challenging.

j_sum1 - 20-11-2014 at 03:46

Ok. We are now well off the topic of lab coats, but never mind (unless someone complains.)

I personally have a fascination for the transition metals. That's where I would spend most of my time if I had opportunity.
Unfortunately we only get to touch on them briefly at school. And we don't have a lot of examples in the chemical store that we can use to show them off. That is one of the appeals of the element collection. If students get to handle some cobalt or tungsten or see their compounds, that makes a whole lot of difference to the learning experience. As for colours, I found this link some time back -- http://www.transtutors.com/chemistry-homework-help/d-and-f-b...

I will give some thought next year to modifications to the syllabus. I think I can tweak things a bit.

Back on topic...
There's a lot of pretty shades that you can stain your nice new lab coat with.

The Volatile Chemist - 21-11-2014 at 07:11

Both the transition metals site and the Gringard reaction PDF are great! Thanks.