Glass is a relatively inert material that can be blown, molded, formed, and cut into various sizes and shapes. Laboratory glassware is made from a variety of glass types including products made from borosilicate glass, flint glass, quartz, or similar materials. They may also be tinted to reduce sample exposure to ultraviolet rays.
- Borosilicate glass: Withstands thermal stress; made with silica and boron trioxide; commonly used for glassware that will be exposed to heat
- Quartz glass: Can be used at high temperatures
- Flint glass: For optical applications
- Soda-lime glass: Relatively inexpensive, chemically stable, reasonably hard, and extremely workable
- Silanized (siliconized): Specially treated to prevent organic materials from sticking to the glass
- Tinted glass: Amber, brown, or other dark colors can block ultraviolet and infrared radiation
Laboratory glassware is used in a number of forms. Some of the most common ones are:
- Tubes: Reusable and disposable centrifuge and test tubes; available in a range of sizes and shapes
- Pipets: Reusable and disposable graduated and volumetric pipets, transfer pipets, and Pasteur pipets
- Flasks: Reusable volumetric flasks, Erlenmeyer flasks, and filter flasks
- Bottles: Reusable and disposable; found in a range of sizes, shapes, colors, closures, and glass thickness
- Vials: Reusable and disposable sample, scintillation, autosampler, and general-purpose vials
- Beakers: Reusable low- and high-form beakers; regular weight or heavy-walled
- Burettes: Dispensing, micro, and automatic burettes; may have glass or PTFE stopcocks
- Distillation glassware: Liebig, Allihn, West, Graham, Cold Finger, Solvent Recovery, and Dewar Condensers
- Cylinders: Graduated and ungraduated
