Cleaning Glassware Exposed to Sea Water

Q. What is the proper way to clean lab glassware that has been exposed to sea water?

A. Sea water contains a large and variable quantity of salts, biological and organic residues. Lab glassware needs to be free of any of these residues to avoid interference in research involving sea water. Sea water would not particularly present challenges beyond the normal array of residues that lab glassware sees.  At Alconox, Inc. we have vast experience in the wide variety of these laboratory residues. A standard cleaning protocol will work fine.

For typical manual cleaning wash with 1% Alconox® Powdered Precision Cleaner or Liquinox® Critical Cleaning Liquid detergent in warm water followed by a thorough rinse in water of suitable purity) for standard laboratory cleaning requirements. If you are doing some extremely sensitive analytical procedure with the glassware (beyond ppm analytical detections), then you will want to pay particular attention to your rinsing technique and the quality of your rinse water.

In general, use deionized water for inorganic analysis rinsing and distilled water for organic analysis rinsing. Carbon filtered or reverse osmosis water can be used in place of distilled water typically. Rinse more than the standard three time rinse for more critical analytical glassware. In the event of glassware used for extreme low level inorganic analysis, an intermediate acid wash step after cleaning with the Alconox or Liquinox detergents will improve cleaning. For such a step, use a warm 2% Citranox® Liquid Acid Cleaner and Detergent solution prior to the final thorough rinse.

For more information about any one of our Alconox, Inc. cleaners, consult the specific technical bulletin for each product. Or click here to access each of our detergent’s Safety Data Sheets. You can also request a free sample by completing the questionnaire at Get Sample.

Do you have a critical cleaning question for the experts at Alconox, Inc.?  Search TechNotes to see if it’s been answered before or Ask Alconox. You may also find the information you seek in one of our Technical Whitepapers available for download.