How do I clean my cuvettes?
Firstly, we should know the importance of cleaning the cuvettes.Cleaning cells is the foundation of any spectrophotometric or fluorometric analysis. The residue from previous analysis will cause inaccuracies, low sensitivity and lack of precision. More important, it will waste your time! Also inspect the condition of the cells. If they are cracked, chipped or scratched it is important to replace the cells with new ones as your time is more valuable than the cost of new cells.
The table below will give you some suggestions for cleaning:
Solvent | Material | Suggested Cleaning Methods |
Aqueous | Protein,DNA, Biologics | Warm water with detergent, Mild acid rinse, Copious water rinse |
Aqueous | Salt solutions | Strong acid rinse, copious water rinse |
Aqueous | Basic solutions | Warm water with detergent, Mild acid rinse, Copious water rinse |
Organic | Oil based | Rinse with solvent, Warm water with detergent, Mild acid rinse, Copious water rinse |
Organic | Alcohol solutions | Rinse with solvent, Copious water rinse |
Organic | Acidic solutions | Rinse with solvent, Copious water rinse |
Organic | Basic solutions | Rinse with solvent, Mild acid rinse, Copious water rinse |
Definitions: | ||
Mild Acid | Equalivent to 0.1mol/l HCl | |
Strong Acid | Equalivent to 1 mol/l HCl | |
Solvent rinse | Rinse with the solvent that solvated your sample in the first place! | |
Copious water rinse | Use a pure water like deionized, distilled or RO and rinse at least 10 times | |
Detergent | Use a neutral pH detergent if available but acid wash and water rinse to remove detergent residues | |
Ultrasonic Cleaners | We do not recommend the use of ultrasonic cleaning baths with cells. Each bath generates a different frequency and if your bath operates at the resonant frequency of a cell, the cell will break. We do not warranty our cells for cleaning in an ultrasonic cleaner. | |
Mild Acid | Equalivent to 0.1mol/l HCl | |
Strong Acid | Equalivent to 1 mol/l HCl | |
Solvent rinse | Rinse with the solvent that solvated your sample in the first place! | |
Copious water rinse | Use a pure water like deionized, distilled or RO and rinse at least 10 times | |
Detergent | Use a neutral pH detergent if available but acid wash and water rinse to remove detergent residues | |
Ultrasonic Cleaners | We do not recommend the use of ultrasonic cleaning baths with cells. Each bath generates a different frequency and if your bath operates at the resonant frequency of a cell, the cell will break. We do not warranty our cells for cleaning in an ultrasonic cleaner. | |