RUSLING GROUP LABORATORY RULES (Updated February 09, 2017)

1. Keep a LABORATORY NOTEBOOK and Record ALL OBSERVATIONS AND DATA.

2. All new STUDENTS, POST DOCS and VISITING SCIENTISTS must attend Safety Training. It is a University Rule and in case of an accident involved/responsible person’s attendance for safety training will be verified as a procedure for further action. Everyone should undergo safety training every two years.

3. Know the location of the chemical safety sheets on the web. For emergencies, know the telephone numbers of the fire department and Environmental Health and Safety Office. All required safety related contact numbers are posted near telephone in every lab. Do everything as safely as possible. Wear safety glasses. Work with solvents and volatile or corrosive substances in the hood.

4. ENSURE that hood doors are closed. Leaving hood doors open consumes more power and lowers efficiency of hoods. By law it is not allowed to keep hood doors open, we will be in trouble if something goes wrong and doors were found open.

5. Clean up all mercury and chemical spills immediately. Get help from the fire department or Environmental Health and Safety Office if necessary. Call Poison control center on exposure to toxic substances for directions.

6. Label each solution and synthesized chemical with your name, its’ name (in words), and the date.

7. Return all chemicals and apparatus to their proper places.

8. Keep PUBLIC SPACE scrupulously clean, e.g. hoods. No researcher may leave equipment or, chemicals in PUBLIC SPACE overnight without a note giving his/her name and the date.

9. Use your own bench and cabinets areas to prepare and store solutions and dirty glassware. Store solutions in storage bottles, not in volumetric flasks. Place storage bottles/chemicals in the fridge or in cabinets rather than on work table/bench.

10. Clean your dirty glassware by the approved permanganate + hydroxylamine method only. This should be posted near the permanganate baths. Do not put rubber or plastic items in the permanganate. Glass wares used for organics/emulsions should be washed thoroughly with detergent before putting into the cleaning solutions.

11. Take proper care of instruments/equipment; read the manuals!

12. LOG BOOK entries (NAME, DATE, BEGIN TIME, END TIME, COMMENTS) must be made when using any of our major lab instruments:
    • BAS and CHI I, II, III, IV
    • GC
    • HPLC
    • AFM
    • ECL
    • 3D printers I, II, III

   LOG BOOKS will be kept with their instruments at all times.

13. Certain instruments/equipment will have assigned MAINTENANCE COORDINATORS. A list of MAINTENANCE COORDINATORS will be posted on the laboratory wall, outside A305. MAINTENANCE COORDINATORS have the following responsibilities:
    • Maintain LOG BOOK for assigned instrument/equipment (if applicable)
    • Arrange for maintenance/repairs of their instrument/equipment.

14. Any breakage/malfunction of equipment/instrumentation is the responsibility of the researcher finding it. This individual must take the following steps to resolve the problem immediately:
    • Note the problem in the LOG BOOK (when applicable).
    • The appropriate MAINTENANCE COORDINATOR must be contacted directly.
    • If there is no MAINTENANCE COORDINATOR assigned to the instrument/equipment, then the repair is a personal responsibility of the researcher identifying the problem. These are your tools; keep them working.

15. Instruments requiring LOG BOOK entries may be RESERVED on the LOG BOOK’S RESERVATION PAGE (NAME, DATE, BEGIN TIME, END TIME). The following rules apply to instrument reservations:
    • A week is defined as a seven day period starting on Monday.
    • No individual researcher may reserve a given instrument for more than 36 hours per week.
    • The maximum continuous block of time that may be reserved is twelve hours.
    • Failure to begin use of their reserved instrument within 30 minutes of the BEGIN TIME noted in the LOG BOOK will result in loss of the reservation.
    • Unused reserved time will be counted against the 36 hour limit.

16. Chemical waste disposal is the personal responsibility of each researcher and must be dealt with promptly. Filled waste containers should be labeled with an Environmental Health and Safety Waste Tag (available in the Chemistry Stock Room) and put under the mercury waste hood. Environmental Health and Safety should then be called immediately to advise them that a pickup is required.

17. No graduate student will be allowed to graduate without first cleaning his or her work area in PRIVATE SPACE to the satisfaction of the LABORATORY MANAGEMENT GROUP. This should include disposal of all chemical waste and cleaning of all glassware. Postdocs and Visiting Scientists are also expected to comply.
18. Strict attention should be paid to purity of chemicals. If you will be often using a chemical from a large bottle, transfer some of it to a small bottle. This way if you contaminate it, you have not contaminated the entire lot. Bottles taken from the cold should be allowed to warm up before removing samples. For expensive chemicals, use small sample volumes in your experiments!

19. Balance Use: The analytical balance is to be used only for high precision weighing of small samples Do not place volumetric flasks or cells on this balance. They are too heavy and will damage this expensive and delicate balance. Use weighing paper or small weighing vessels. Weighing large amounts of chemicals should be done on the larger balances.

 

ALL RESEARCHERS ARE REQUIRED TO FOLLOW THESE RULES!