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Sterile technique is a collection of lab practices in order to ensure that an area is free of microorganisms. This is essential when working with bacteria as contamination may a ect the results of your experiments.
- Wear gloves so that your cells do not contaminate the bacteria and so that the bacteria does not infect you. Wash your gloved hands with 70% ethanol. After working with bacteria, wash your hands.
- The lab bench must be washed down with 70% ethanol before and after use.
- Glassware is sterilized using the autoclave.
- A sterilized container should be kept sterile. In order to keep a container sterile when opening it, the lid and neck of the container must be repeatedly flamed in the following fashion:
- Flame the entire circumference of the neck of the bottle.
- Open the lid slightly. For a screw on cap, this could be about half a turn. For aluminum foil, unfold the edges slightly.
- Repeat the 1st two steps until the cap is loose enough to easily lift off.
- Flame the entire circumference of the lip of the container as well as the internal side of the cap.
- Place the cap on the lab bench with the internal side facing up.
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| Figure 1. Flaming the neck of a sterile Erlenmeyer flask. |
- To close a cap, follow the previous procedure in reverse.
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