How to Select Cuvettes for UV VIS Measurements & Cuvette Material Guide

Selecting cuvettes for UV VIS measurements can be tricky.  Not all cuvette material will work for every experiment, so some basic education is required.  Using this page as a guide we will walk you through what important factors you should consider when buying a UV VIS cuvette.

Cuvette Material Breakdown

Now the most important factor when looking for a UV VIS cuvette is the cuvette material.  There are many different materials that a cuvette can be made from.  The four most popular cuvette materials are listed below:

• Optical Glass or Pyrex Glass

• UV Quartz

• IR Quartz

• Sapphire

Each of these materials has their strengths and weaknesses.  Again depending on your application will determine which one of the above are best.  Let’s start with Optical Glass.

If you have a tight budget, than you are going to want to go with an Optical Glass cuvette.  This cuvette material is great for work in the VIS range and has a decent transmission range from 340-2,500 nm.  Most applications will fall in this range and many do not need the additional UV points that you get with the other materials.

UV Quartz is a step above Optical Glass.  You’re going to pay a bit more for quartz, but you also get an extended transmission range of 190-2,500 nm.  For UV experiments, you absolutely need a UV quartz cuvette and we highly recommend you do not try to cut corners here because by getting a cheap UV cell, your data will not be up to par.

IR Quartz is great choice for cuvettes for UV VIS measurements.  The transmission range is 220-3,500 nm so you get some of the UV, but you get a nice range in the IR as well.

Sapphire is an amazing cuvette material.  Sapphire is a super hard material making it damage resistant and very hard to scratch.  The transmission range on sapphire is a whopping 250-5,000 nm.  Of course, this is the most expensive of the four making it great if you have the budget and need the super broad optical range.

Material	Transmission	Price
Optical Glass	340 - 2,500 nm	$
UV Quartz	190 - 2,500 nm	$$
IR Quartz	220 - 3,500 nm	$$$
Sapphire	250 - 5,000 nm	$$$$

Spectrophotometer Cuvettes for UV VIS

The most popular cuvette for UV VIS that we carry is our Type 1UV10 and Type 5UV10.  Now Type 1 and Type 5 are pretty much identical.  The only difference is that Type 1 cells have square corners and Type 5 cells have rounded corners.  Please see the photo below.

Type 5UV10 is the ultimate balance for someone looking for a high quality UV quartz cuvette.  You get the full range of the UV quartz material, plus due to the U-shaped bottom, you save money since manufacturing this cell is much easier than the five piece construction of its Type 1UV10 brother.  The price for Type 5UV10 is a mere $54 making it a great buy for labs on a budget.

Fluorescence Cuvettes for UV VIS

The Type 1FLUV10 cell is the most basic cuvette for UV VIS measurements.  This cell has all four windows polished and comes in the UV grade quartz.  The Type 1FLUV10 cell weighs in at about $125 dollars, which is far below market value for this cuvette.  Unlike our spectrophotometer cuvettes, there is not U-shaped alternative in our fluorescence line.

Custom Cuvettes for UV VIS

If the cuvettes mentioned above to not fit your requirements, then we have good news for you.  We can customized any of the hundreds of cuvettes from our product line to produce exactly what you need.  You give us the specs you want and we’ll take care of making you the cuvette of your dreams.

Now you have all the basic information to correctly choose a great cell for UV VIS experiments.  All that is left to do is add one of the above cells to your cart and have us ship you one today.

Here’s to your success!

The FireflySci Team