How to Extract Thick Solution From a Vial

Always wear gloves when working with liquids in a laboratory.

Without being able to extract thick liquids from vials, polymer science and chemistry experiments will go awry. It's common to minimize quantity when running chemical experiments, so it's often necessary to make use of small amounts of liquid in vials. However thick this liquid may be, moving it from one container to another, even in small quantities, is a necessary skill for scientists.

Things You'll Need

• Gloves
• Small spatula

Instructions

1. Put on the gloves.

2. Open the tube.

3. Hold the tube sideways with the opening of it positioned over the receiving container.

4. Scrape what is now the top side of the tube with the spatula as you insert the spatula into the tube.

5. Scrape the sides of the tube down to what is now the bottom half of the tube.

6. Scrape the thick solution out of the tube starting at the original bottom of the tube and moving toward the opening.

7. Repeat Step 6 until all the liquid has been removed from the vial.

References

• Do Thick Liquids Flow Faster or Slower Than Thin Ones?