Evaporating Dishes & Spot Plates for Chemistry

Porcelain evaporating dishes evaporate liquid into solid residue or concentrate. Find spot plates and culture plates for watching reactions.

Evaporating Dishes

An evaporating dish is a tool used in labs to separate liquids and solids from a solution by allowing the water to evaporate off into the air. The result is either a more concentrated solution or the solid precipitate of the dissolved substance.

It looks like a small bowl (made of borosilicate glass or ceramic) with a pour spout. Sometimes they're also called an evaporation dish or evaporating basin. The clear shallow type is called a watch glass, since it resembles a watch face.

We sell sizes ranging from a 35 ml capacity to 200 ml. They're made from thermally-stable porcelain that's glazed inside for easy cleaning. Our watch glasses come in 65 mm or 100 mm capacity and are also useful for covering beakers to prevent condensation escape.

In a science lab, use porcelain evaporating dishes to heat chemical solutions and drive off the solvent, leaving behind the residual chemical solute. This is usually done by heating the evaporating dish over a burner.

Spot Plates

Use spot plates (also called reaction plates or culture plates) to perform controlled tests with a small amount of chemical. Each reaction plate features 12 or more wells in which to perform the experiment. The wells function as tiny beakers.

The types of chemistry spot plates available for your lab are made of autoclavable ceramic or porcelain; we also have a clear plastic microplate or culture dish available.

Porcelain spot plate: This one has 12 wells, each about 20 mm in diameter at the top. Since it's white ceramic, it works well to observe color change reactions. It's durable, acid- and alkali-resistant, easy-to-clean, and autoclavable.

Microplate or micro culture dish: Made of clear plastic, these will serve you well in microchemistry experiments. The 24 flat-bottom wells each hold about 3 ml. The entire plate measures 3" x 5" overall.

While intended for chemistry, spot plates' unique design makes them useful for many purposes. One customer used his to observe the life cycle of insects. How else could you use them?