What are the advantages and disadvantages of different centrifugal pipes

Update:05-06-2020
Summary:

The centrifugal pipe is mainly made of glass, plastic a […]

The centrifugal pipe is mainly made of glass, plastic and stainless steel. When using the glass pipe, the centrifugal force should not be too large. Rubber pad is needed to prevent the pipe from breaking. Generally, the glass pipe is not used in high-speed centrifuge. The stainless steel pipe has the advantages of high strength, no deformation, heat resistance, frost resistance and chemical corrosion resistance. However, it is also necessary to avoid contact with highly corrosive chemicals, such as strong acid, strong alkali, etc. Polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate (PC) and polypropylene (PP) are the common materials for plastic centrifugal pipe, among which PP pipe has better performance. The advantages of plastic centrifuge tube are transparency (or translucency), small hardness, and gradient can be taken out by puncture method. The disadvantages are easy to deform, poor corrosion resistance to organic solvents and short service life. All plastic centrifugal pipes have pipe covers. Before centrifugation, the pipe covers must be tightly covered and inverted without leakage. The cap has three functions: ① to prevent the sample from leaking. This is particularly important when used on radioactive or highly corrosive samples. ② Prevent sample volatilization. ③ Support centrifugal pipe to prevent deformation of centrifugal pipe.

Material characteristics of plastic centrifugal pipe:
PP (polypropylene): translucent, chemical and temperature stability is good, but it will become brittle at low temperature, so it should not be below 4 ℃ when centrifuging.
PC (polycarbonate): it has good transparency, high hardness and can be sterilized at high temperature, but it is not resistant to strong acid, strong alkali and some organic solvents such as alcohol. It is mainly used for ultra-high speed centrifugation with more than 50000 revolutions.
PE (polyethylene): opaque. It does not react with acetone, acetic acid, hydrochloric acid, etc. it is relatively stable and easy to soften at high temperature.
PA (polyamide polymer): this kind of material is PP and PE polymer, translucent, chemical properties are very stable, but not high temperature resistant.
PS (polystyrene): transparent, hard, stable for most aqueous solutions, but will be corroded by a variety of organics, mostly used for low-speed centrifugation, and generally disposable.
PF (polyfluorine): translucent, can be used at low temperature. If it is an experimental environment at - 100 ℃ ~ - 140 ℃, it can be used as a centrifuge tube of this material.
Cab (butyl acetate cellulose) is transparent and can be used for the gradient determination of dilute acid, alkali, salt, alcohol and sucrose.