Define Cuvette – I Wonder What this Article Could Be About

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Hi all you FireflySci fans!  Today we have a pretty interesting article in which we define what a cuvette is and some applications they are used for.

Define Cuvette

For starters a cuvette is like a rectangular test tube.  Cuvettes are used to hold and test aqueous solutions of a countless array of chemical and other liquid substances.

A friend of mine told me that he did some in-depth research on the history of cuvettes and he found out that the word cuvette is from a French word, early 18th century.  A diminutive of cuve, meaning casks. 

I’ve also seen watches with the word cuvette in their name.  So far, we don’t have any plans on making or selling watches, but we’ll keep you posted if anything changes.

Define Cuvette – Short History of Cuvettes

A cuvette is made from 5 separate pieces of glass or quartz and they are fire fused together.  Some people think that we hollow out a solid block of quartz to make a cuvette, but this is incorrect information.

Before rectangular cuvettes were invented, scientists use to use test tubes for their experiments.  As technology improved and methods were discovered to glue and fire fuse glass plates together, the methods changed.  Cuvettes had a ton of advantages over using test tubes as we’ll see below.

When using a cuvette with flat optical walls, there is no chance of light scattering all over the place as when it hits a round surface.  In addition, it is much easier to get a nice uniform finish when polishing flat plates.  This gives the plates a nice even thickness within a tolerance of +/- 0.02 mm. 

Round surfaces require a fire polish to become optically clear.  This polish can warp the glass or quartz and give inaccurate readings.

Define Cuvette – Applications

To be honest there is an endless amount of applications for cuvettes because they are very versatile.  But, here is a list of some of the most popular applications our customers are using our cuvettes for.

  • DNA/RNA Quantification
  • Food & Beverage Quality Control
  • Polymer Analysis
  • Agricultural Measurements
  • Biotech Applications
  • Cyrogenic Experiments
  • Freezer Pump Thaw Method
  • Circular Dichroism
  • Electroporation
  • Electrophoresis
  • Anaerobic Applications

The list goes on and on.  If you have any applications that we should add please let us know in the comments section below.

Here's to your success!!

The FireflySci team