Starna's scientific development department has designed the Type 19FL ultra-micro volume fluorescence lens cell.
It allows researchers to carry out clinical, biochemical or pharmaceutical studies cost-effectively by performing UV/visible spectrofluorometer analysis on smaller-volume samples of typically 5 microlitres or less, and provides a practical system where samples cannot be prepared in or diluted to larger volumes.
It avoids the need for dilution, minimising reagents costs, and is well suited to analysis in volumes typically handled in molecular biology and forensics applications.
By offering high sensitivity even in very small volumes, the Type 19FL ultra-micro cell is also suited to proteomics applications, where the sensitivity of the cell is sufficiently high to measure native fluorescence of proteins prepared in microlitre quantities.
The cell design also allows the majority of the sample to be recovered.
The ultra-micro cell is about 5 per cent less sensitive when compared with a conventional 10mm path-length cell; however, the difference is much less than the loss in sensitivity encountered when diluting the sample to the required minimum volume (about 300 microlitres) for full 1cm2 cells.
The lens design offers greater efficiency than a standard micro cell of equivalent geometry.
The Type 19FL ultra-micro lens cell is designed for ultra-low volume fluorescence measurements in the 5-microlitre sample volume range.
The cell allows high-quality fluorescence measurements using a conventional spectrofluorometer, at sample volumes that could only be previously tested using expensive, dedicated, low-volume instrumentation.
Using far-UV non-fluorescence quartz, the Type 19FL ultra-micro volume fluorescence lens cell, with 5mm path length, can be supplied with a 'Z' height of 8.5, 15 or 20mm, and has been specifically designed to make loading and flushing simple, with minimum dead volume.
