Fabrication of an Optical Cell Dryer for the Spectroscopic Analysis Cells

Summary

A protocol for fabricating a device for simultaneously drying multiple optical cells is presented.

Abstract

Optical cells, which are experimental instruments, are small, square tubes sealed on one side. A sample is placed in this tube, and a measurement is performed with a spectroscope. The materials used for optical cells generally include quartz glass or plastic, but expensive quartz glass is reused by removing substances, other than liquids, to be analyzed that adhere to the interior of the container. In such a case, the optical cells are washed with water or ethanol and dried. Then, the next sample is added and measured. Optical cells are dried naturally or with a manual hairdryer. However, drying takes time, which makes it one of the factors that increase the experiment time. In this study, the objective is to drastically reduce the drying time with a dedicated automatic dryer that can dry multiple optical cells at once. To realize this, a circuit was designed for a microcomputer, and the hardware using it was independently designed and manufactured.

Introduction

Optical cells are used as laboratory instruments in a wide range of fields. In life science research, biomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins are often utilized for experiments, and spectroscopic methods are widely used for quantitative methods. Accurately quantifying the sample of the experiment is indispensable for obtaining more accurate and reproducible results. The absorption spectrum obtained by a spectrophotometer has often been used for the quantification of biomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins^1,2,3,4. Research on ....

Protocol

1. Design

1. See Figure 1 for details of the development drawing.
2. Cut a 3-mm thick acrylic board to 210 mm in width x 60 mm in height x 104 mm in depth, bond with acrylic adhesive and assemble the case.
3. Install as many as 30 optical cells of 12.5 x 12.5 mm.
4. Attach switches and lamps for starting and stopping and a variable dial for the drying time setting on the front face of the casing.
5. See Figure 2 for an extern.......

Discussion

The optical cells can be dried simultaneously with the blowers, and the drying time can be considerably reduced. Even if the stop operation is not executed, it can be safely stopped by using the automatic stop function of the timer. From the measurement results of the drying time distribution, there was no significant difference in drying time because of the difference in the installation position of the optical cells.

A critical step of the protocol is the design of the casing. The challenge .......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
blower	ebm-papst	422JN	Mulfingen, Germany
Microcomputer	Atmel Corporation	ATmega 328 P	CA, USA
Blower selection button	Sengoku Densyo Co., Ltd.	MS-358 (red)	Tokyo, Japan
Blower operationg lamp	Akizuki Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd.	DB-15-T-OR	Tokyo, Japan
Blower start button	Sengoku Densyo Co., Ltd.	MS-350M (white)	Tokyo, Japan
Timer	Akizuki Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd.	SH16K4A105L20KC	Tokyo, Japan
Power supply switch	Marutsuelec Co., Ltd.	3010-P3C1T1G2C01B02BKBK-EI	Tokyo, Japan
Power supply lamp	Akizuki Denshi Tsusho Co., Ltd.	DB-15-T-G	Tokyo, Japan
OLED module	Akihabara Co., Ltd.	M096P4W	Tokyo, Japan