The Ultimate Guide for Choosing Pipette Tips
In modern life sciences, clinical testing and scientific research experiments, pipetting operations run through the entire experimental process. As a key consumable for micro-liquid distribution, the performance of pipette tips directly affects the accuracy and repeatability of experimental results. The pipette tip series launched by SDLABIO has become the first choice of many scientific research institutions and laboratories with its three advantages of high adaptability, high cleanliness and high stability.
What is a pipette tip？
Pipette tips are disposable laboratory consumables designed for accurate liquid handling in conjunction with pipettes. Made from high-quality polypropylene (PP), they offer excellent chemical resistance and clarity. Available in various types—filter tips, non-filter tips, low retention tips, and conductive pipette tips—they are compatible with both manual and automated systems. Widely used in molecular biology, cell culture, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical research.Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
What types of pipette tips are there?
- Classification by filter element or not
Pipette Filter Tips: Built-in hydrophobic filter element to prevent sample from splashing into the pipette.
Advantages: prevent cross contamination, protect pipette, suitable for high-sensitivity experiments such as PCR and RNA extraction. Commonly used in molecular biology, clinical diagnosis, virus detection and other high-demand environments.
Filter-free tip: No filter element, simple structure, suitable for ordinary pipetting operations.
Advantages: low cost, suitable for routine experiments. Commonly used in daily liquid transfer, buffer solution filling and other basic experiments.
Filtered VS Unfiltered Pipette Tips
Structural differences: Filter pipette tips have a layer of hydrophobic filter inside the tip, located at the end of the pipette near the pipette, which is used to prevent liquid or aerosol from entering the pipette channel. Non-filter tips have no filter and a simpler structure. Liquid can directly enter the pipette channel through the entire tip.
Anti-pollution capability: Filter tips for pipettes can effectively prevent cross-contamination caused by sample back-aspiration or aerosol backflow, protecting the purity of samples and the cleanliness of the inside of the pipette. Non-filter tips lack a barrier mechanism, and improper operation may cause sample contamination or pipette damage, especially when conducting molecular experiments.
Applicable scenarios: Pipette tips with filters are suitable for experiments with extremely high requirements for contamination control, such as PCR, qPCR, RNA extraction, clinical sample processing, pathogen detection, etc. Non-filter tips are more suitable for daily general experiments, such as buffer transfer, culture medium configuration, routine cell experiments, etc., which do not require high sterility or anti-contamination operations.
- Classification by the material treatment of the inner wall of the pipette tip
Low Retention Pipette Tips: The inner wall of the pipette tip is specially treated to reduce liquid residue.
Advantages: Improve liquid recovery rate and reduce sample loss. Commonly used for trace experiments such as protein samples, enzymes, DNA/RNA solutions, etc.
Standard Tips: No special surface treatment, suitable for general pipetting work.
Advantages: High cost performance and wide application.
- Classification by compatible platform/adaptive device
Universal Pipette Tips: Conical interface design, compatible with most brands of manual pipettes (such as Eppendorf pipette tips, Gilson, Thermo, etc.).
Advantages: strong applicability, convenient unified procurement.
Robotic Pipette Tips / Conductive Pipette Tips: Dedicated to automated workstations, such as Tecan pipette tips, Hamilton pipette tips, Beckman, etc.
Mostly conductive materials or containing metal particles, the liquid surface can be identified by the instrument capacitance sensing. Commonly used for high-throughput screening, gene sequencing, sample packaging, etc.
- Classification by volume
Micro pipette tips: 10ul pipette tips, 20 μL (suitable for precision experiments).
Medium volume: 100 ul pipette tips, 200ul pipette tips, 300 μL (for routine experiments).
Large volume: 1000 ul pipette tips, 1250ul pipette tips, 5ml pipette tips, 10 ml pipette tips (suitable for large volume pipetting).
- Classification by packaging form
Bagged Pipette Tips: Low cost, manual loading required. Suitable for cost-sensitive laboratories.
Racked Pipette Tips: Tips are pre-packed in boxes for easy access. Suitable for daily fast operation and occasions with high cleanliness requirements.
Sterile VS Non Sterile Pipette Tips
Sterile pipette tips are pipette tips that have been sterilized efficiently, usually by gamma ray sterilization or electron beam sterilization, to ensure sterility, DNase-free, RNase-free, and pyrogen-free. Mase free pipette tips are designed for experiments with extremely high requirements for sterility, such as cell culture, molecular biology (PCR/qPCR), clinical sample testing, RNA extraction, etc. These experiments are extremely sensitive to nuclease contamination, and once contaminated, it will directly affect the results.
Non-sterile pipette tips are produced in a clean environment but have not been sterilized. They may contain microbial or nucleic acid contamination risks and are not suitable for experiments with high sterility requirements. Non-sterile pipette tips are suitable for daily liquid handling, buffer preparation, and general experiments in clean environments, but are not recommended for high-demand occasions such as clinical, pathogen or molecular experiments.
Do pipette tips dissolve in dmf?
- If a small amount of DMF is pipetted with a pipette tip for a short period of time during the experiment, it will generally not dissolve or break down immediately.
- If soaked for a long time or in contact with DMF at high temperature, PP materials may be at risk of structural degradation, brittleness, deformation or leakage.
- Therefore, from the perspective of experimental stability and safety, it is not recommended to use conventional polypropylene tips to handle large amounts or high temperatures of DMF.
In summary, polypropylene pipette tips can withstand DMF at room temperature for a short period of time, but cannot withstand long-term or high-temperature contact. If DMF must be used frequently in an experiment, it is recommended to use consumables that are specifically marked as DMF-resistant, or to use solvent-resistant materials such as PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) instead.
How to autoclave pipette tips?
First, you need to confirm the material of the pipette tip. Most of the pipette tips on the market are made of polypropylene (PP), which has good high temperature resistance and can withstand 15-20 minutes of high pressure steam treatment at 121°C, suitable for autoclave sterilization. However, it should be noted that some low-cost or special-purpose pipette tips may have added fillers or use non-pure materials. It is not recommended to autoclave such pipette tips, and the product instructions provided by the manufacturer should be checked.
Secondly, before sterilization, the tips should be taken out of the plastic bag and placed in a high-temperature and pressure-resistant sterilization box or stainless steel container. It is recommended not to stack them too densely to ensure that the steam can fully penetrate the gaps between each tip to achieve a thorough sterilization effect. If the tips are pre-installed in a sterilization box, the box cover should also be breathable (with a filter membrane or opening) to allow steam to enter and exit smoothly.
During the autoclave sterilization process, the commonly used parameters are: 121°C, 15 psi (1.05 kg/cm²) pressure, and duration of 15-20 minutes. Some laboratories may use 134°C / 30 psi for stronger sterilization, but this may cause deformation risks for some pipette tips, and the settings need to be adjusted according to the heat resistance of the product.
After sterilization, the pipette tips should be allowed to cool naturally in the autoclave and the pressure should be released before being taken out to avoid sudden changes in temperature causing material shrinkage or deformation. Sterilized pipette tips should be immediately packaged or stored in a clean and dry environment to prevent secondary contamination.
Finally, it is worth noting that some high-level experiments (such as RNA experiments and PCR) recommend the use of disposable pre-sterilized pipette tips or enzyme-free sterile pipette tips to reduce the risk of contamination caused by human operation and avoid potential cross-contamination or incomplete sterilization during high-pressure sterilization.
Summary
SDLABIO pipette tips are made of high-quality polypropylene and produced in a Class 10,000 cleanroom to ensure DNase-, RNase-, and pyrogen-free performance. They are compatible with most major pipette brands and provide reliable sealing and accuracy.
Available in multiple types, including standard, filter, RNase-free, and extended-length tips, they are suitable for molecular biology, cell culture, and clinical diagnostics, ensuring consistent and efficient liquid handling in laboratory applications.
