Cuvettes and Cuvette Accessories

Cuvette Cleaning & Care – Properly maintained and clean cuvettes are a basic requirement for accurate and reproducible results with any spectroscopy instrument. Inspect your cuvettes weekly. If the cuvettes have cracks, chips or scratches they should be immediately replaced. The cost of a replaced cuvette is much cheaper than the cost of lost or inaccurate data. Proper cuvette cleaning is very important. The residue from previous experiments can result in poor performance, inaccurate measurements and will waste your time and your sample. Proper cleaning of your cuvettes will increase their useful life and provide more consistent results. Use only high quality lens paper to wipe off cuvettes. Do not use paper towels, Kim Wipes® or other similar types of paper products. Most paper products have abrasives in them and will scratch the cuvette´s surfaces. Scratches will cause light scattering and will ultimately effect your measurements. At the end of the day, clean your cuvettes throughly, dry completely and store them in a padded cuvette box or other suitable container. If the cuvettes are stored wet , they may dry with sample material on the measuring surfaces, which will effect subsequent measurements. DO NOT clean your cuvettes in a ultrasonic cleaning bath. The high frequencies used in these baths will damage or even shatter your cuvettes. Proper cuvette washing systems are listed in the accessory listing below.

Cuvette Washers – Cuvette washers are designed to spray the interior walls of a cuvette with cleaning solution and rinse water. A vacuum source is required for proper use. Cuvette washers come in a one cuvette model or two cuvette model. The two cuvette or dual model allows for the cleaning of two cuvettes simultaneously. This helps to insure that matched pairs of cells receive the same cleaning treatment. All cuvettes should be cleaned and dried at the end of each day´s use.

Standard Cuvette –The Standard Cuvette´s exterior dimension allows it to be used with most spectroscopy instrumentation in use today. The cells are 45mm high with two clear walls and can be ordered with a Teflon® lid or Teflon® stopper. Path lengths of 1mm to 100mm are available.

Semi–Micro Cuvette – The Semi–Micro cuvette allows for a reduced sample volume to be used. The volume required in a Semi–Micro cuvette is approximately 40% of the volume required in a standard cuvette of the same path length. This is achieved by making the side walls thicker than in a Standard cuvette. However, since the interior width of the Semi–Micro cuvette is 4mm, it is very important that the light beam is properly centered on the cuvette. Path lengths of 5mm to 50mm are available and can be ordered with either a Teflon® lid or Teflon® stopper.

Micro Cuvette – The Micro cuvette allows for a reduced sample volume to be used. The volume required in a Micro cuvette is approximately 20% of the volume required in a Standard cuvette of the same path length. This is achieved by making the side walls thicker than in a Standard or Semi–Micro cuvette. However, since the interior width of the Micro cuvette is only 2mm , it is extremely important that the light beam is properly centered on the cuvette. Path lengths of 5mm to 50mm are available and can be ordered with either a Teflon® lid or Teflon® stopper.

Sub–Micro Cuvette – Sub–Micro cuvettes are designed to be used with very small sample volumes–10ul to 160ul. Samples can be easily pipetted in and out of the open top cuvette. Sub–Micro cuvettes are supplied with a Teflon® lid.

Note that the total sample volume required is typically 15–20% greater than the absolute chamber volume. Because the interior chamber width of the Sub–Micro cuvette is only 1 or 2mm, it is extremely important that the light beam is properly aligned and centered on the cuvette. The correct "Z" dimension is also very important. If you are not sure of the "Z"dimension of your instrument, please contact us or the instrument manufacturer. Refer to the "Z" dimension chart below for a partial listing.

Cell Window Materials –
Optical Glass (G) – Usable Range: 334nm to 2500nm
Special Optical Glass (SOG) – Usable Range: 320nm to 2500nm
Infrasil® (QI) – Usable Range: 220nm to 3800nm
Spectrosil® (QS) – Usable Range: 170nm to 2700nm
High Floor (HF)

Black Side Walls – Increased performance is achieved by using cuvettes that have black side walls. The self masking black walls improve sensitivity by reducing scattering and stray light.

Match Code – A code assigned to a cell during manufacturing and final QC testing. Cuvettes with the same matchcode will have a the same transmittance within a specified tolerance (.5%–1.5% depending on cell material). If you are ordering cells that will be used as a set, please specify that you need identical match codes.

The floor height of a cuvette is the distance from the bottom of the cuvette to the floor of the interior chamber. The floor of a standard cuvette is 3mm thick. If a smaller sample volume is required and the "Z" dimension of the instrument will allow its use, a High Floor (HF) cuvette can be used. The floor thickness of the HF cuvette is 9mm.

"Z" Dimension – The distance, in mm, from the base of the cell to the center of the cell window or apeture. The "Z" dimension is a function of the optical design of the instrument as determined by the instrument´s manufacturer. Typical "Z" dimensions are 8.5mm, 15mm and 20mm. Please review the partial listing below to find your specific brand of instrument. Not all units are listed. If you need help determining the correct "Z" dimension for your application, contact us and we will be glad to help you select the proper cell for your application.

Our part numbers have letters that identify the type of material the cuvette is made of and/or the style of construction–either clear wall, black wall or high floor.
G = Optical Glass
SOG=Special Optical Glass
GB = Optical Glass with Black Walls
QS=Quartz, Spectrosil
QI=Quartz, Infrasil
QSB=Quartz, Spectrosil with Black Walls
HF=High Floor