How to measure a liquid volume with electronic pipettes (video)
How to measure a liquid volume with electronic pipettes
An extremely useful feature of the electronic pipette server INTEGRA, is the mode known as manual mode. Essentially this mode is used, if you don't know the exact volume you want to aspirate or if you want to have total and complete control over your aspiration and dispensing. Much like you would have with a manual pipette.
This is the perfect mode for carrying out titrations, measuring unknown volumes, collecting supernatant and much more. By pressing the run button, you can control how long the aspiration occurs for. And you can also see on the screen how much has been aspirated or dispensed.
To show you what this looks like we'll be using a via flow single channel electronic pipette with a volume range of 5 to 125 microliters. Enter the liquid with the pipette and every time the run button is depressed, the liquid will slowly be aspirated. A quick look at the screen confirms, just how much has been aspirated. For larger amounts of liquid, simply hold the run button longer. This is great for controlling the aspiration of. For example a supernatant without disturbing the pellet or beads.
An absolutely great advantage of this mode is using it to measure the volume in a plate or tube. Here the tube has been completely aspirated and there is air in the tip. The screen shows how much liquid has actually been aspirated including the air. If we reverse direction of pipetting to dispense, we can dispense until the air is completely out of the tip. And the screen shows us exactly how much liquid is in the tip. Total control of your pipe heading together with knowing the exact volume which has been aspirated or dispensed can be a very powerful tool in many pipetting protocols. The manual mode from INTEGRA's electronic pipettes offers a lot of flexibility and functionality. So try it out.