Universal handheld micropipette
Abstract
The handheld micropipette is the most ubiquitous instrument for precision handling of microliter-milliliter liquid volumes, which is an essential capability in biology and chemistry laboratories. The range of one pipette is typically adjustable up to 10-fold its minimum volume, requiring the use and maintenance of multiple pipettes for liquid handling across larger ranges. Here we propose a design for a single handheld pipette adjustable from 0.1 μl to 1000 μl (i.e., 104-fold) which spans the range of an entire suite of current commercial pipettes. This is accomplished by placing an elastic diaphragm between the existing pipette body and tip, thereby de-amplifying its native volume range while maintaining its simple manual operating procedure. For proof-of-concept, we adapted a commercial pipette (100–1000 μl nominal range) with a selection of rubber sheets to function as the diaphragms and confirmed the accuracy and precision of drawn volumes are within international ISO-8655 standards across the entire 104-fold volume range. The presence of the diaphragms introduces a nonlinear mechanical behavior and a time-dependency due to heat transfer, however, by model and experiment, these are redressed so as to maintain the pipette’s accuracy and precision.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4966989
Entities
People
- A. John Hart
- Justin Beroz
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Defense