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The inventory

Starting materials are the chemicals and consumables on your shelves. They live in a shared inventory, so that samples can point at the actual bottle they came from.

Browsing the inventory

Click Inventory in the top menu. The table lists every starting material you can see. Use Search to find a chemical by name, formula, supplier or location.

Adding a starting material

  1. On the Inventory page, click Add a starting material.
  2. Enter an ID and a name, then click Submit.
  3. On the new item's page, fill in what you know and press Save.

The usual fields are the supplier, chemical purity, date acquired, date opened, location and barcode. Substance Information holds the chemical formula and CAS number.

Starting materials are shared lab resources. Any active user can edit them, not only the person who added them.

Your inventory may come from elsewhere

Some groups keep their inventory in another system and copy it into datalab. If so, make changes in that system, or ask whoever manages it.

Using a starting material in a sample

Add the starting material as a constituent of your sample, under Synthesis Information. This links the sample to that exact bottle. See Link items together.

Hazard information

Enter GHS hazard codes, such as H302 or H315, in the GHS Hazard Codes field. datalab shows the matching hazard pictograms on the item and in the table.

Warning

Hazard information in datalab is a convenience. It does not replace the supplier's safety data sheet or your institution's risk assessment process.

Tracking amounts

You can record the container size and how full it is. These are updated by hand. datalab does not reduce the amount automatically when you use a starting material in a sample.

When a bottle is used up or thrown away, change its status rather than deleting it. Samples made from it then keep their link.