UV Cuvettes

UV Cuvettes

Eliminate the need for cleaning, and the associated risk of sample carryover and cross-contamination. BRAND's UV-transparent, disposable cuvettes replace expensive, fragile quartz cuvettes and are excellent for DNA, RNA, and protein analysis between 230-900nm. Made from a proprietary polycyclical olefin, they can be used with most polar solvents, acids and alkaline solutions. In addition to the macro and semi-micro sizes, UV-cuvettes are available in ultra-micro sizes that require only 70 L of sample volume. The ultra-micro cuvettes are also available individually-wrapped and independently-certified DNA-, DNase-, RNase-free for an extra degree of sample protection. All BRAND cuvettes are manufactured from scratch-resistant materials, and are grouped by manufacturing mold cavity number to ensure the lowest variation in extinction coefficient.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the light path of the BRAND cuvettes?
All BRAND cuvettes have a light path of 10mm.

2. What is the difference between your PS, PMMA and UV-Cuvettes?
Polystyrene (PS) cuvettes are the least expensive, however they have the lowest chemical resistance, and are only suitable for visible light applications, with a lower wavelength limit of around 340nm. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA or "acrylic") cuvettes extend that range to about 300nm, or slightly into the near UV range, and have slightly greater chemical compatibility. BRAND UV-Cuvettes use a proprietary plastic to allow measurement as low as 230nm, and has resistance to many polar organics as well as many acids and bases.

3. What does "mold cavity matched" mean?
Cuvettes are injection molded plastic. No matter how close the tolerances are in the molds, there will be some variance. BRAND cuvettes are sorted during the manufacturing process so that each package of cuvettes contains only cuvettes made from the same mold, minimizing the cuvette-to-cuvette variance.

4. What is the maximum temperature the UV cuvettes can tolerate?
The UV cuvettes should not be used above 70 C.

5. Do you offer sterile UV-Cuvettes? / Can the UV-Cuvettes and caps be autoclaved?
Ultra-micro UV-Cuvettes are offered individually wrapped, DNA-, DNase-, RNase-free. However, because they have not undergone a sterilization procedure, they can not be called sterile. This is true of all disposable UV-transparent cuvettes on the market - none of them have undergone a sterilization procedure. The UV-cuvettes cannot be autoclaved. Autoclaving destroys the optical properties of the UV-Cuvettes. The caps are made of polyethylene, and as such can not be autoclaved. They are, however, manufactured under clean room conditions.

6. My results with your UV-Cuvettes are different than with quartz. What's happening?
While our UV-Cuvettes allow enough light to pass to perform accurate spectrophotometry down to 220nm, they are not as transparent as quartz. When using UV-Cuvettes, any reference measurements should also be done with UV-Cuvettes.

7. I have selected the correct size UV-Cuvettes for my spectrophotometer, but still am not getting appropriate results. Why?
If you are using the appropriate window height (z-dimension) ultra-micro UV-Cuvette for your spectrophotometer, and are not getting appropriate results, it is likely due to one of two different problems.

• Extremely dilute samples: Because the proprietary plastic has a higher absorbance than quartz, extremely dilute samples may not differ substantially from background, so you may have no other choice than to use a quartz cuvette.
• Light beam width: Some spectrophotomers have abnormally wide light beams that can be refracted by the side walls of the cuvette. When using ultra-micro sized samples, these spectrophotometers require the use of black-masked quartz cuvettes to overcome this deficiency.

8. Do you sell four-sided-clear flourimetry cuvettes?
Yes.

BRAND UV-Transparent Disposable Cuvettes

Description	Filling Vol.		Window Dimensions, mm	Light Path, mm	Pack of	Cat. No.
	Min.	Max.
Macro	2.5mL	4.5mL	10 x 35	10	100	759170
Semi-micro	1.5mL	3.0mL	4.5 x 23	10	500	759165
Semi-micro	1.5mL	3.0mL	4.5 x 23	10	100	759150
Ultra-micro (15mm window height)	70 L	550 L	2 x 3.5	10	500	759230
Ultra-micro (15mm window height)	70 L	550 L	2 x 3.5	10	100	759220
Ultra-micro, individually wrapped (15mm window height)	70 L	550 L	2 x 3.5	10	100	759235
Ultra-micro (8.5mm window height)	70 L	850 L	2 x 3.5	10	500	759210
Ultra-micro (8.5mm window height)	70 L	850 L	2 x 3.5	10	100	759200
Ultra-micro, individually wrapped (8.5mm window height)	70 L	850 L	2 x 3.5	10	100	759215

• Item Group: Cuvettes
• Unit of Measure: Each
• Pack Quantity: Pack of 100