What makes an experiment a genuine work of science? An experimental procedure? Experimental observations? Maybe. But procedures and observations become useful (and interesting) to scientists only when both can be described with enough detail and precision to allow another scientist to repeat the full experiment.

Your lab notebook contains the descriptions of your experimental procedures and observations. It is the formal record of your lab work (and the only one that we will accept). As such, it must contain three types of information for each experiment:

The essential requirements for a lab notebook do not vary much from one science course to the next, but details do vary. A Chemistry 201/202 lab notebook looks quite different from a Chemistry 101/102 notebook. Therefore, please read the rest of this page in its entirety as well as the relevant sections in Padias. We hope the instructions are self-explanatory, but if not, do not hesitate to contact your lab instructor.

Choosing and setting up your notebook

Official record on the RIGHT - anything else on the LEFT

Open your notebook and you see two pages: one on the right and one on the left. All of the required entries in your notebook - your procedure, your observations, and the information needed to handle and dispose of your compounds safely - must be written on the right-hand pages. (Concession to southpaws: if you are left-handed and you find it more convenient to write on the left-hand page, that's fine. However, once you choose the left, stick to the left. Don't flip-flop.)

Of course, writing only on the right means the left-hand pages will remain blank. This isn't such a terrible thing. For example, if your pen bleeds through the paper, writing on both sides of the page would make both impossible to read. But you don't really need to leave the left pages blank. You can write whatever you want on these pages, but don't treat these entries as your official record because your instructors won't. If you want to write plans and outlines, record data (temporarily), do calculations, then do so. The left-hand pages belong to you.

Padias alert. The instructions in Padias (Padias p. 4-16) for keeping a notebook are to be followed except in one respect: Padias does not use our "official record on the right" rule (see example notebook on Padias p. 8-11). Therefore, when it comes to page usage, do not follow Padias' example. Enter required information on the right side only.

Each experiment should begin on a new (right) page, and should contain the following entries in the following sequence:

Title Chemical equation Information for handling compounds: 1) table of physical properties and desired amounts, 2) list of relevant hazards and instructions for safe handling (see Safety appendix), 3) list of disposal instructions (see Disposal appendix) Dated, detailed description of procedure & observations

Items #1-3 must be entered into your notebook before you begin each experiment and before you come to lab. Looking up this information and writing it into your notebook is part of your pre-lab preparation. (Students may be asked to leave the lab if they are inadequately prepared. Underprepared workers create hazards for other students.)

Item #4 must be entered after you start working in the lab. This is vital. Some students are tempted to write instructions in their notebook ahead of time, for example, they might enter,

"Mix acetic acid ( __ mL), concentrated sulfuric acid ( __ mL), and isopentyl alcohol ( __ mL) and reflux ( __ min). Solution turns ___."

Then they fill in the blanks after they perform the experiment. This is totally unacceptable. You cannot write your procedure before you come to lab. (But there is no reason why you can't write procedural plans on the left-hand pages.)

No matter how well you plan, you must allow for the not insignificant possibility that your procedure will contain some unexpected twist that you hadn't planned for. Students who write out a "procedure-with-blanks" before lab often fail to record these twists (which leads to an unsatisfactory lab report). These students may be responding to a deep-seated desire to simplify their notekeeping, but they are missing the point: a scientific procedure is what happens in the lab and it can't be recorded until after it happens.

Please read the relevant sections in Padias p. 4-16 for detailed information on what to write and where to write it. The example on p. 8-11 (apart from the use of left and right pages) provides a very nice illustration of what a notebook should look like and should be studied carefully. Note: some of the instructions in Padias will not be immediately useful. Skip irrelevant items for now, but remember to check these pages again later.

Sample notebook entry

The following shows what the right-hand page of a lab notebook might look like. Some of these items were entered before lab, while others (dated entries) were entered during and after lab. Padias p. 8-11 provides a nice example with a slightly different style of record-keeping.

Synthesis of 1,2-Dibromocyclohexane from Cyclohexene

bromine - highly toxic vapor/liquid, keep in hood, wear gloves

CCl₄ - carcinogen, keep in ‘carcinogen’ hood

organics – flammable, dispose in organic waste container

	4/1/01	Equipped a 2 L, 3-necked round bottom flask with a 500 mL addition funnel, mechanical stirrer, and thermometer. Charged flask with a solution of cyclohexene (120 g, 1.5 mol) dissolved in ~300 mL CCl4. Cooled solution to –5 oC (ice-salt), and while stirring, slowly added a solution of Br2 (67 mL, 1.3 mol) dissolved in 145 mL CCl4(addition time 1:30 - 4:25, kept temp below –1 oC at all times).
	4/2/01	Transferred mixture to 1 L Claisen flask and removed solvent by distillation (bp 75-80 oC). Distilled brown residue under aspirator vacuum. Collected 301 g of colorless oil, bp 99-103 oC (16 mm Hg). 96% from Br2.
	4/3/01	TLC of product (5:1 hexane: EtOAc, silica gel) shows only one spot. 300 MHz NMR (CDCl3, AJS-01a) consistent with trans product stereochemistry.