Corrosion Testing on Lab Glassware

Q. Is corrosion testing advisable on type I borosilicate glass labware?

A. Type 1 borosilicate glass has excellent corrosion resistance properties.  For this reason, it is commonly used for laboratory glassware to hold a wide range of chemical compounds without interacting with those compounds.  Alconox, Inc. detergents have not been reported to attack type I borosilicate glass.  Attack on type I borosilicate glass is most commonly associated with high temperature and extended time soaking with strong mineral acids or concentrated caustic solutions.

Occasionally there have been reports of etching of laboratory glassware when the glass is soaked continuously for weeks or months at a time half in and half out of a soak solution of detergent.  An etch line at the meniscus can happen.  It is always best to soak with the glassware completely immersed in solution so there is no thin meniscus where the etching tends to happen. This has not been reported with type 1 borosilicate glass specifically, but in theory it could happen with this type of glass.  Lime soda glass is more commonly the type of glass that gets etched more easily in these kinds of extended soak half-in and half-out of the solution situations.

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