Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2014
Department
Chemistry
Abstract
While metal spatulas are damaged through everyday use and become discolored and corroded by chemical exposure, drinking straws are inexpensive and disposable, reducing the risk of cross contamination during laboratory experiments. Drinking straws are also useful because they come in a variety of sizes; narrow sample containers such as NMR and EPR tubes can easily be filled using small diameter coffee stirrers, while bulk material can be transferred using larger drinking straws.
Several types of drinking straws and coffee stirrers were cut at various angles and the amount of material picked up in a single scoop was massed thirty times. Standard deviations of the thirty measurements per straw indicate that approximately the same amount of material will be scooped each time by the same operator.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Lobuono, C., Turano, M. A , & Kirschenbaum, L. J. (2014). Coffee stirrers and drinking straws as disposable spatulas. Journal of Chemical Education, 92(1), 197-198. doi: 10.1021/ed5006322
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed5006322
Author Manuscript
This is a pre-publication author manuscript of the final, published article.
Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable
towards Open Access Policy Articles, as set forth in our Terms of Use.