Basic Lab Training

Here, you will find all routine standard operating procedures (SOPs) for lab management and general laboratory protocols. These protocols and procedures are simply a matter of good laboratory practice, to be followed in any analytical laboratory. These procedures are also referenced in the Laboratory User Training.

  • Balances
    • This document covers the operating, calibration check, and maintenance of electronic analytical balances used for weighing standards and samples.
  • Micropipette
    • This document covers the proper operation and maintenance of the micropipette, a piece of equipment fundamental to solution and sample preparations.
  • Water
    • This document covers the operating and maintenance of the equipment used to produce reagent water.
  • Laboratory Waste Disposal and Management
    • The purpose of this document is to assist laboratory users in the proper handling and disposal of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste according to EHS regulations, as well as dictate proper disposal of excess reagents, spent water, and excess standards from the different instruments at the Water Sciences Laboratory.
  • Sample Disposal and Handling
    • The procedure covered in this document covers the handling and disposal of samples and sub-samples at the Water Sciences Laboratory.
  • Labware Cleaning
    • Glassware Cleaning
      • The proper cleaning and care of laboratory glassware is fundamental to nearly all analytical procedures. This document covers the methods of cleaning the most commonly used laboratory glassware.
    • Plastic Cleaning
      • This procedure is used to clean all plastics (plastic containers (HDPE, LDPE), centrifuge tubes, and pipette tips) associated with the ICP-MS, but can be used for all plastics in the lab.
    • Sample Bottle Cleaning
      • This procedure outlines cleaning methods for sample containers used for the most typical analytical analyses.
    • Teflon Cleaning
      • This procedure is for cleaning all Teflon associated with the ICP-MS, but can be used for all Teflon in the lab.
  • Equipment Reservation
    • This document gives instruction on how to sign up for QReserve to reserve a lab equipment, and how to navigate through the website itself once you have become a member of the Water Sciences Laboratory QReserve page.
  • Instrument Rental
    • This document lists the general responsibilities for external lab users of WSL instrumentation.
  • Method Validation
    • This document outlines the set of experimental procedures needed to validate a method that measures specific constituent(s) or characteristic(s) in a specific matrix or specific matrices.
  • Running Batches, Accepting Batch Data, and Data Review
    • This document is to serve as a general guideline for acceptance criteria and data presentation.