How do I clean my cuvettes?

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.