Microscale Lab

Introduction to Microscale Laboratory
Niki Gharavi *, Minh Nguyen
San Jose City College

ABSTRACT: The objective of the experiment was to be introduced to working with the lab equipment, specifically heating and measuring, and to be able to create some of the apparatus that future experiments will require. Heating methods used were an aluminum block, a sand bath, and a water bath. The aluminum block heated most quickly while the others were more stable. Regarding the measurement of water, the less volume of water that was being transferred, the less accurate the measurement turned out to be.
Heating Methods:
Aluminum block:
Heat setting
Temperature ()
Time (minutes)
3
24.1
5:00
4.5
44.3
10:00
3.5
50.0
11:23
3.5
56.0
12:00
1
59.0
13:23
Off
63.0
15:00
The aluminum block heated very quickly, and it was difficult to maintain the
The automatic pipet seemed to have the most accurate delivery due to the total combined percent error. (b) Which heating methods were the easiest and the hardest?
The aluminum block was the hardest to maintain since it heated so quickly, the sand bath was in the middle, and the water bath was the easiest to maintain due to the fact that we kept the temperature very low. (c) Speculate the reason why you would need to maintain two roughly calibrated pipets in your drawer throughout the semester
To prevent error within experiments.
(d) List sources of errors and whether these would be positive or negative errors.
Errors in heating were due to the too high het setting the heating methods were placed upon, causing the temperature to rise too high. Errors in measurement may have been inaccurate pipetting of the water, which would have caused a negative effect, increasing the percent error.
(e) Reliability of microscale experiments in general – use % errors in the automated pipets and your calibrated pipets for error