Laboratory consumables are indispensable items in the daily operation of laboratories, with a wide variety and covering many aspects of the experimental process.

I. Chemical Reagents

1. Acid and Base Reagents
   • Acid reagents such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid are common strong acids, which are widely used in chemical analysis, sample digestion and other experiments. For example, when determining the content of metal ions, nitric acid can be used to dissolve metal samples so that they can be detected by instruments later.
   • Base reagents like sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are mainly used to adjust the pH value of solutions. In acid-base titration experiments, they are the key reagents for determining the concentration of unknown acids or bases.
2. Buffer Reagents
   • Buffer reagents such as phosphate buffer and Tris-HCl buffer can maintain the solution within a specific pH range. In biochemistry experiments, such as the determination of enzyme activity, buffer reagents can ensure that the enzyme reaction proceeds under the optimal pH conditions. Because the activity of enzymes is very sensitive to pH changes, suitable buffers are helpful for obtaining accurate experimental results.
3. Organic Reagents
   • Alcohol reagents such as methanol and ethanol are common organic solvents, which are used to dissolve organic compounds and extract components from biological samples. For example, in the experiment of extracting plant pigments, ethanol can effectively extract pigments such as chlorophyll.
   • Acetone is also an important organic solvent. It can be used as a component of the mobile phase in chromatographic analysis or to clean organic residues on laboratory utensils.
   • Acetonitrile is an excellent solvent in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis and can provide good separation effects, especially when analyzing small organic molecular compounds.
4. Color-developing Reagents and Indicators
   • Phenolphthalein is a commonly used acid-base indicator. It turns pink in alkaline solutions and can be used to judge the end point of acid-base titration experiments.
   • Diphenylamine reagent is used in DNA identification experiments. It reacts with DNA under acidic conditions and turns blue, helping to determine whether DNA exists in samples.

II. Laboratory Utensils and Consumables

1. Glassware
   • Test tubes are the most basic laboratory utensils, which are used for the reaction of small amounts of reagents and the temporary storage of samples. For example, in chemical qualitative experiments, ion reactions can be carried out in test tubes, and the presence of ions can be judged by observing color changes or the formation of precipitates.
   • Beakers have different capacity specifications and are mainly used for the preparation, heating and mixing of solutions. When preparing chemical reagent solutions, beakers are essential tools.
   • Volumetric flasks are used to accurately prepare solutions with a certain volume and concentration. They have precise scales. In chemical quantitative analysis experiments, such as the preparation of standard solutions, they are the key instruments to ensure the accuracy of solution concentrations.
   • Pipettes and burettes are tools for accurately transferring a certain volume of liquid. They have high precision and are essential consumables in experiments that require accurate measurement of liquids, such as drug analysis experiments.
2. Plastic Utensils
   • Disposable plastic droppers are used for sucking and dropping small amounts of liquid. They are easy to operate. In microbiological culture experiments, they can be used to add reagents or antibiotics to petri dishes.
   • Plastic centrifuge tubes are used for the centrifugal separation of samples in biological experiments. They have various specifications and can meet the needs of samples with different volumes. In cell biology experiments, centrifuge tubes can be used for operations such as collecting cells and separating organelles.
3. Filtering Utensils
   • Filter paper is the most common filtering material and is used to filter solid impurities in solutions. After chemical precipitation experiments, clear filtrates can be obtained by filtering through filter paper for subsequent analysis.
   • Filter membranes have different pore sizes. For example, microporous filter membranes can be used to filter tiny particles such as bacteria and viruses and are widely used in microbial detection and aseptic filtration in the pharmaceutical industry.

III. Biological Reagents and Consumables

1. Culture Media
   • Basic culture media such as LB medium (Luria-Bertani medium) are mainly used for the cultivation and reproduction of bacteria. In molecular biology experiments, they are used to culture common bacteria such as Escherichia coli for gene cloning, protein expression and other experiments.
   • Solid culture media are made by adding gelling agents such as agar to liquid culture media and are used for the isolation and purification of microorganisms. For example, when isolating specific bacteria from environmental samples, by streaking inoculation on solid culture media, bacteria can be made to grow separately to form single colonies, which is convenient for selection and further research.
2. Cell Culture Consumables
   • Cell culture flasks are used for the in vitro culture of cells. Their surfaces are specially treated and are suitable for the adherent growth of cells. In cell biology and medical research, they are used to culture various cell lines. For example, cancer cell lines are used in anti-cancer drug screening experiments.
   • Petri dishes are also commonly used utensils for cell culture and play an important role in experiments such as cell counting and cell morphology observation.
   • Cell cryopreservation tubes are used to preserve cells. In the process of long-term preservation of cells or the establishment of cell banks, cells are preserved in liquid nitrogen by adding cryopreservation solution to maintain the vitality and biological characteristics of cells.
3. Biological Sample Collection Consumables
   • Blood collection needles and blood collection tubes are used for collecting blood samples from animals or humans. In medical tests and biological research, different types of blood collection tubes (such as blood collection tubes containing anticoagulants for blood component analysis and blood collection tubes without anticoagulants for serological experiments) can meet various experimental requirements.
   • Swabs are used to collect microbial samples. For example, when detecting bacteria and viruses in the human oral cavity or nasal cavity, swabs are used to wipe the corresponding parts, and then the swabs are put into culture media or preservation solutions for subsequent detection.