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Chapter 10
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Maintenance
Thermo Scientific
Orion AquaMate Spectrophotometer User Manual
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179
Routine Care
Routine care for the spectrophotometer does not require a lot of time. To help minimize
maintenance time and increase the life and performance of the instrument, please follow these
guidelines:
•
Always replace the dust cover when the instrument is not turned on to prevent dust from
accumulating in and on the instrument.
•
Do not use or store the instrument in a corrosive environment.
•
Gently wipe the outside of the instrument, including the keypad, with a soft cloth to remove
any dust or spills. Water, isopropyl alcohol and other common laboratory cleaning agents
may be used if necessary.
•
Always clean up spills as soon as they occur to prevent or minimize damage to the
instrument. If concentrated acids or bases, or any hydrocarbon materials, are spilled on the
instrument, clean up the affected area immediately.
Cleaning and Maintaining Vials and Cuvettes
Carefully check the condition of the vials, cuvettes and other cells used to measure samples. If
they are chipped, cracked or scratched, it is important to discard the damaged vials and replace
them with new ones.
Ensuring your vials are clean both inside and out is important to the quality of your results for
two reasons: 1) contaminating material may absorb light resulting in falsely high absorbance
readings; and 2) contaminants in the vial may react chemically with subsequent reagents or
standards introduced into the vial.
Cleaning methods depend to some extent on the nature of the contaminating material. It is
important to identify the residual material in the vial that needs to be removed. Refer to the
following table for suggestions on cleaning methods, solvents and material.
Solvent Examples
Suggested Cleaning Methods
Aqueous Protein, Biologics, DNA
Warm water with detergent
Dilute nitric acid (<10%) rinse
Copious water rinse
Aqueous Salt solutions
Dilute nitric acid (<10%) rinse
Copious water rinse
Aqueous Basic solutions
Warm water with detergent
Dilute nitric acid (<10%) rinse
Copious water rinse