And the research continues.. to a bad start

Day one of my lab research proper has finally started. My supervisor gave me a simple enough task: prepare a solution as the starting point for further molecular biology probing.

The protocol (aka experimental technique) was just several lines long. One part of it read 'add 1ml of 1M NaOH'. We had no fresh NaOH solution in the lab however; the last batch (ancient, I was told) was firmly sealed in its own volumetric flask.

No problem. Just make some. I did some simple arithmetic: one mole of NaOH requires 23 + 16 + 1 = 40g per litre. I thought of making a small 100ml batch since I only needed 1ml. So I measured out 4 grams of the stuff, chucked it into the beaker of appropriate water, and I got the magnetic stirrer and heating plate going.

Sure enough, the NaOH tablets soon dissolved. But I noticed a problem: they were not actually dissolved fully but were in a separate phase, forming an emulsion in the water. I frowned and pointed it out to one of the PhDs, who commented that it 'was just air bubbles'. At any rate, I took the beaker off the plate, and sure enough whenever the opportunity presented itself, the NaOH formed into solids again. Bah.

So I repeated it again with a volumetric flask and plugged in the stopper to prevent water from evaporating. After the NaOH had dissolved again, I moved the flask to a cooler area. I tried to open it after twenty minutes, thinking that the stuff would have cooled down sufficiently. Oh dear; a whole lot of it just flew out of the flask with a loud hiss, hitting the ceiling, the equipment all around it, getting onto my lab coat, onto my gloves, and onto my exposed face. Thank God for glasses though. Happily for me it was a relatively dilute solution (at least a couple times more concentrated and I'd have scars), but it was still ferociously hot. Of course, I spent several minutes washing my face, as per safety protocol.

The worst was yet to come though. I still had to make the bloody solution and was not in the mood to give up. So I took another volumetric flask, measured the NaOH, put it in, got it stirring etc. So I was watching the mixing from about a metre away, when the whole thing literally exploded as I tried to jump out of the way. Fortunately for me, it was more of an implosion than an explosion.


The volumetric flask, with the bottom cut off cleanly.

Bah. Over 3 hours had passed; a fourth batch failed, and getting incredibly frustrated and annoyed after 3.5 hours of no results (not to mention that I hadn't eaten for over 8 hours), I trudged over to the next lab, asked another of the PhDs for a small sample, and got it.

Morale of the story: Ask.