April 2006
Pipetting of volatile organic solvents with ADC
With the new Anti Droplet Control (ADC) HAMILTON introduces an innovation for pipetting volatile organic solvents. Instead of using a liquid filled positive displacement system the STAR workstations use Monitored Air Displacement, a technique that allows unparalleled process safety. Pressure sensors in the pipetting channel monitor each pipetting step, giving users the opportunity to react to problems like empty samples or clots immediately. With ADC HAMILTON takes this technology one step further. Pipetting of volatile organic solvents is a challenge because the evaporation of these solvents causes a pressure increase that leads to immediate leakage from the pipette. The pressure sensors in the STAR’s pipetting channels can detect this pressure increase and ADC can compensate for them in real time. ADC not only illustrates the advantages of monitored air displacement, it also opens up new application fields in combinatorial chemistry and biology. ADC is part of HAMILTON’s new Vector Software 4.0, the standard operating software of the STAR liquid handling systems.