The act of acquiring chemicals is an important part of waste minimization and laboratory safety. Before chemicals are ordered several factors should be considered: 

1. The possibility that the desired chemical(s) is already available from another lab or centralized stockroom should be examined. 
2. Check the Research Material Management (RMM) chemical inventory system to see if a chemical is available on campus. 
3. The experiment(s) should be reviewed to determine the minimum quantity of the chemical(s) that is required to complete the necessary work.
4. Fire codes, Institutional policies and regulatory restrictions may limit the amount of a certain chemical or group of chemicals that may be stored in a given area. This fact should be considered when ordering a quantity of a specific chemical.
5. Some chemicals require special handling and storage once they have arrived at Rensselaer. Some examples might include refrigeration, dry box, freezing or storage away from light and/or moisture. Consideration must be given to special storage and handling requirements prior to chemical arriving at Rensselaer.
6. The stability of the chemical must be considered. Inherently unstable materials may have very short storage times and should be ordered on a “just in time” basis. Other materials may degrade to form explosive mixtures. These materials must be closely tracked in storage to identify signs of dangerous degradation.
7. The potential waste produced by the chemical and process in question should be considered from both a health and safety and a cost perspective. 

Procurement Services offers step-by-step directions on how to use the OSCAR program to order chemicals.

Once a chemical has been ordered, it will be delivered to Central Chemical Receiving in Cogswell 221. The chemical will be received using the Research Material Management (RMM) service, barcoded, and distributed to the ordering lab. Once a chemical is received by the lab, the chemical will be dated upon receipt. If a chemical is obtained from the Cogswell or Walker Stockrooms, RMM must be updated with the new location of the chemical.

It is prudent to store containers of incompatible chemicals separately. Separation of incompatibles will reduce the risk of mixing in case of accidental breakage, fire, earthquake, or response to a laboratory emergency. Even when containers are tightly closed, fugitive vapors can cause incompatibility reactions that degrade labels, shelves, cabinets, and containers themselves. The table below shows the detailed classification system for the storage of groups of chemicals by compatibility here at Rensselaer. 

The system classifies chemicals into 11 storage groups. Each group should be separated by secondary containment (e.g., plastic trays) or, ideally, stored in its own storage cabinet. According to this system, it is most important to separate storage groups B (compatible pyrophoric and water-reactive chemicals) and X (incompatible with all other storage groups). These two groups merit their own storage cabinets.

SOURCE: Prudent Practices in the Laboratory, Adapted from Stanford University’s Chem Tracker Storage System. Used with permission from Lawrence M. Gibbs, Stanford University.