Regarding the cleaning and disinfection of pipettes

Many experimenters have only a superficial understanding of cleaning and disinfecting pipettes, which may cause external contamination or affect the service life of pipettes, reducing their performance. Let's take a closer look at the common cleaning and disinfection methods for pipettes

During daily cleaning, simply use a cleaning paper dipped in 75% alcohol to repeatedly wipe the handle of the pipette, the catapult, and the outside of the white sleeve to reduce the probability of contamination.

When the nozzle connection enters aqueous solution, buffer solution, acid or alkali solution due to reverse suction or horizontal placement of the pipette, the lower part of the pipette should be disassembled, and the contaminated tube should be thoroughly rinsed with pure water. The pipette should be naturally air dried in a ventilated place or placed in an oven (below 60 ℃) for drying and natural cooling, and then the piston should be coated with lubricating oil before assembling the pipette.

When organic solvents contaminate the pipette, unlike inorganic solutions, it is necessary to rinse the lower half of the pipette with a neutral detergent or directly let the organic solvent evaporate after disassembly, then rinse with pure water and dry according to the above method, and apply lubricating oil to the piston.

When conducting cell experiments or experiments with potentially infectious liquids (it is recommended to use a pipette with a filter or a pipette with a filter to reduce contamination), disinfection and cleaning of the pipette are more important. At this time, ultraviolet radiation can be used to kill surface microorganisms, which will not affect the accuracy and precision of the pipette.

For pipettes that can be sterilized under high temperature and high pressure, they can be wrapped in sterilization bags or kraft paper and sterilized at 120 ℃ and 1 bar atmospheric pressure for 20 minutes. After sterilization is complete, they should be dried at room temperature and the piston should be oiled before assembly. Whether disassembly is necessary should be operated according to the requirements of different brands of pipettes.

Have you received the above methods for cleaning and disinfecting the pipette? The editor reminds everyone at the end of the article that for daily maintenance of pipettes, corresponding operations must be carried out according to the instructions of each manufacturer, and there may be slight differences among different brands.