Have you chosen the right centrifuge tube in your lab?

Centrifuge tube is a common experimental consumable in the laboratory, mainly used in conjunction with the centrifuge. That is, the test liquid is packed in it, and then centrifuged in the centrifuge.

According to the different materials, it can be divided into plastic and glass. Plastic centrifuge tubes are used more, and can be divided into PP, PC, PS, etc. According to different needs, manufacturers will choose different plastic materials to make.

According to its size, it is divided into 1.5mL, 2mL, 5mL, 10mL, 15mL, 30mL, 50mL, etc. The more used ones are 10mL and 50mL. In addition, the centrifuge tube has a round bottom and a pointed bottom, as well as a screw cap and a plug cap. The screw cap centrifuge tube has a fine scale, and the plug cap only has an overall capacity indicator.
Centrifuge tubes commonly used in laboratories are plastic and glass. Generally, plastic is used more, because glass centrifuge tubes cannot be used in high-speed or ultra-speed centrifuges. Plastic centrifuge tubes are made of PP (polypropylene), PC (polycarbonate), PE (polyethylene) and other materials. The performance of PP pipe is relatively good. The plastic centrifuge tube is transparent or translucent, and you can visually see the centrifugation of the sample, but it is relatively easy to deform and has poor resistance to organic solvents, so it has a short service life. Therefore, laboratories generally buy centrifuge tubes frequently. The various materials are introduced separately below.

PP (polypropylene): translucent, chemical and temperature stability is good, but it will become brittle at low temperature, so it should not be below 4 ℃ during centrifugation.
PC (polycarbonate): good transparency, hardness, can be high temperature disinfection, but not resistant to strong acid and alkali and some organic solvents such as alcohol. It is mainly used for ultrahigh speed centrifugation with more than 50000 revolutions.
PE (polyethylene): opaque. It doesn't react with acetone, acetic acid, hydrochloric acid and so on. It is stable and easy to soften at high temperature.
PA (polyamide): this material is PP and PE material polymer, translucent, chemical properties are very stable, but not resistant to high temperature.
PS (polystyrene): transparent, high hardness, stable to most aqueous solutions, but will be corroded by a variety of organic substances, mostly used for low-speed centrifugation, and generally disposable.
PF: translucent, can be used at low temperature, if it is - 100 ℃ - 140 ℃ experimental environment, can use this material of centrifugal tube.
Cab (butyl acetate cellulose): transparent, can be used for gradient determination of dilute acid, alkali, salt, alcohol and sucrose.

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