What are lab bench tops made of?

[Elite Engineer]

What are they made of? The one's you used in high school or college chem class. Are they made of a specific inert material?

 

Cause if you do home chemistry experiments..you have to be careful of what you use:

 

Wood table top: Cautious of hydrocarbons, heat from exothermic reactions/ burning, acid stains

 

Glass table: Cautious of breaking glass, spilling hydrofluoric acid on glass, leaving stains from reagents

 

Cement floor (in basement): not entirely practical.

 

 

 

Lab bench top: Prevents against all these...what is it made of?

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2017 by Elite Engineer

[John Cuthber]

Last one I looked at carefully was some sort of mineral filled epoxy.

[Elite Engineer]

Last one I looked at carefully was some sort of mineral filled epoxy.

are minerals generally inert? also light weight?

[zapatos]

I found phenolic resin lab benches for sale.

 

Phenol formaldehyde resins (PF) or phenolic resins are synthetic polymers obtained by the reaction of phenol or substituted phenol with formaldehyde. Used as the basis for Bakelite, PFs were the first commercial synthetic resins (plastics). They have been widely used for the production of molded products including billiard balls, laboratory countertops, and as coatings and adhesives. They were at one time the primary material used for the production of circuit boards but have been largely replaced with epoxy resins and fiberglass cloth, as with fire-resistant FR-4 circuit board materials.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol_formaldehyde_resin

Edited June 10, 2017 by zapatos

[John Cuthber]

are minerals generally inert? also light weight?

No, and it was damned heavy- but that doesn't matter much. It wasn't portable

 

However, you could sharpen a knife on it..

[studiot]

Avoid marble or concrete (I think you call it cement). They are not acid resistant.

 

Natural stone can't usually be finished to a sufficiently fine surface.

 

Artificial stone is usually fabulously expensive, but can be effective as others have said.

Epoxy or polyester resin with ground silica / mica / corundum filler.

Corian is very good and relatively lightweight.

 

A cheap alternative for the home might be resin faced shuttering ply, which is pretty hardwearing.

[hypervalent_iodine]

The undergrad labs here have glass benches on one side and chemically resistant laminate benches on the other side. Most labs in my building tend to use some variation of the latter. Fume hoods here are generally tiled.

[CharonY]

Mix of phenolic and epoxy resin benches as well as a few stainless steel ones., depending on when the lab was built.

[John Cuthber]

 

Natural stone can't usually be finished to a sufficiently fine surface.

 

Would you like a second guess?

http://www.axminster.co.uk/granite-surface-plate-388016

 

Even this sort of thing is polished to a mirror finish.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Betterware-PRIME-Solid-Granite-Chopping-x/dp/B002C2YRNA