Which material is good for laboratory consumables
Commonly used pipette tips, pipettes, PCR tube plates, etc. in general laboratories are made of polypropylene, and cell culture plates/cell culture flasks, enzyme-labeled plates or chemiluminescent plates are made of polystyrene, and centrifugation There may be many kinds of tube materials. Take the centrifuge tube as an example to see what are the characteristics of these different plastic materials.
Plastic centrifuge tubes are generally made of PP (polypropylene), PC (polycarbonate), PE (polyethylene) and other materials. The performance of PP pipe is relatively good. The plastic centrifuge tube is transparent or translucent, you can see the sample centrifugation intuitively, but it is easier to deform and has poor resistance to organic solvents, so it has a short service life.
It is semi-obvious. It has good chemical and temperature stability, but it will become brittle at low temperatures, so do not centrifuge it below 4°C.
PS (Polystyrene):
Transparent, high hardness, stable to most aqueous solutions, but will be corroded by a variety of organic substances, it is mostly used for low-speed centrifugation, and is generally for one-time use.
PF (polyfluoride):
It is translucent and can be used at low temperature. If it is an experimental environment at -100℃-140℃, centrifuge tubes of this material can be used.
PC (polycarbonate):
The transparency is good, the hardness is high, and it can be sterilized at high temperature, but it is not resistant to strong acids and alkalis and some organic solvents such as alcohol. Mainly used for ultra-high speed centrifugation above 50,000 rpm.
PE (polyethylene):
opaque. It does not react with acetone, acetic acid, hydrochloric acid, etc., is relatively stable, and tends to become soft at high temperatures.
PA (polyamide):
This material is a polymer of PP and PE material, translucent, chemically very stable, and not resistant to high temperatures.
CAB (cellulose butyl acetate):
Transparent, it can be used for the gradient determination of dilute acids, alkalis, salts, alcohol and sucrose. Therefore, it is necessary to select experimental consumables of suitable materials according to different experimental requirements. Otherwise, it may cause leakage, rupture, etc., loss of valuable experimental samples, and sometimes damage to expensive experimental equipment.
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