Question

What is a hood used for in the chemistry laboratory?

Answer 1

Hint: A chemistry lab is designed in a way to prevent the inhalation of harmful gases. Fuming hoods are devices to prevent these things. It is used for ventilation. It is also known as fume cupboard or fume closet. These are the devices that work on electrical energy.

Complete answer:
The chemical laboratories involve experimenting with various chemicals that produce products. These products can sometimes be harmful or toxic to inhale. The inhalation can cause certain disorders. In such conditions a device called hood or fume hood is used to swipe away all the harmful fumes from chemicals and dust. Apart from protecting the scientist, it also protects the environment of the lab like the furniture and the cabinets, and also the products of the experiment.
A hood is a large device that works on a method of drawing air and expelling it. They are generally mounted at the top of a working area. There are two types of hood, ducted hood and ductless hood. A ducted fume hood ventilates the lab by expelling the air outside through ducts. While a ductless fume hood involves a filter that sucks the air and expels the filtered air again in the same lab atmosphere.
Hence, a hood in a lab is used to create ventilation in the lab by expelling or filtering the harmful and toxic gases and particles from the air.

Note:
The working of fume hoods require a large amount of energy that makes the laboratories consume more electrical energy. Some examples of ducted hoods are auxiliary air hoods, constant air volume hoods, reduced air volume hoods. Ductless fume hoods are also called recirculating fume hoods and have 2 segments called pre – filtration and main filtration.