cuvette uses - (Mar/26/2010 )
I am curious that how glass cuvette and plastic type differ in their uses, I was told that some experimental procedures should use one but not another. Appreciate any help, thanks.
dttom on Mar 26 2010, 01:33 PM said:
I pressume you mean quartz glass cuvettes? in which case these are used for readings in the UV range as the plastic may interfere with these wavelengths
So can I say quartz does not absorb UV light?
Generally yes, though I'd look at the instructions for which wavelengths the cuvette is usable. There are also plastic ones available that can be used with UV light such as this one. But it's a random google result, don't know about the quality of them..
Ok, that means common plastic cuvettes made from polystyrene should not be used with UV with fews exception, and quartz ones doesn't have this problem. Thanks.
Hi,
polystyrene-made cuvettes are not usable for UV-light measurements.
There are very few other plastic-made cuvettes available which are usable for UV, seems to be not that easy to make them in high quality. I would only trust good brands for these consumables.
As they are single-use only, you avoid any risk of contamination. Especially for RNA (and DNA), I would always use these ones (certified RNase- and DNA-free), individually packaged if possible.
In many labs, the quartz stuff is already used by generations of students, and you have no clue how clean they really are.