Answer:
b. sterile water
Step-by-step explanation:
An autoclave can be defined as a chamber (container) designed to expose an equipment to steam i.e a moisture at high heat and pressure for a specific period of time.
Basically, an autoclave is container or chamber that is strongly heated and as a result, it is typically used for the sterilization of various laboratory and medical equipments using steam under pressure and high temperature.
This ultimately implies that, an autoclave avails laboratory scientist and other end users the ability to disinfect or sterilize equipments by exposing them to moisture at high heat and pressure for a specific period of time.
Hence, when taking hot surgical instruments from a steam autoclave the surgical technologist is responsible for cooling the instruments with sterile water i.e water that is of high quality and free of any impurity or pollutants.