Comparing The Automated Pipetting To Volumetric Glassware And Air Displacement Pipettes

Analytical sample preparation is used in many industries such as forensics, environmental chemistry, mining, beer and wine fermentation and many others. Concentrated samples are diluted and analyzed via High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography, Atomic Absorption, and/or Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy to name a few. Traditionally these samples are prepared using volumetric glassware, syringes and/or pipettes. These manual techniques are effective but leave room for improvement. The use of volumetric glassware is time consuming and often results in waste due to large preparation volumes. Traditional air displacement pipettes are prone to fluctuations in accuracy resulting from user-to-user variation, sample vapor pressure, viscosity and atmospheric pressure. Using a positive displacement automated pipetting device like the Microlab® 600 can reduce sample preparation time, reduce waste and improve consistency of results. For example a 1:50,000 dilution can be performed in a single step due to the wide range of syringes available from 10 μL to 50 mL. In this study we will show that the Microlab 600 saves time, money, limits waste production and maintains high accuracy and precision.