Rapid-Kinetics and Spectroscopy: Stopped-Flow; Fluorescence, Absorbance, Circular Dichroism, Anisotropy Spectrometry

 


Bio-Logic Stopped-flow in microgravity


In addition to top of the art specification the bellow experiments require an uncompromised reliability. Instruments used all derive from standard instruments and as such provide the best testing platforms for our most classical laboratory versions.

Beginning march, a full set Bio-Logic instrumentation has flown in the Zero-G A-300 Airbus from CNES
(see: http://www.novespace.fr).
These experiments conducted by a group of Academic Researcher (UMR-CNRS-5090 / CEA - Grenoble - France ) were intended to study the progress of aggregation and polymerisation reactions in the absence of perturbation caused by gravity.
Experiments for Italian scientists from Genoa were also executed in one of the flight.

These experiment have used a standard SFM-400/S stopped-flow, a MOS-DA diode array spectrometer, modular MOS-200 optical components and a control PC computer with all Bio-Logic driving software. They have involved fluorescence, light scattering and absorbance transient recordings during the zero-G portion of the parabolic trajectory of Airbus.


The experimental set-up

In a tight collaboration between the Researchers and the Bio-Logic staff, all this equipment was conditioned to fulfill the constraints of zero-G flights. This has been greatly facilitated by the standard features and performances of the Bio-Logic instrumentation namely :

  • Double confinement of the liquid reactants (very similar to the standard anaerobic procedures)
  • Full computer control of mixing ratio allowing several mixing protocols to be executed without manual solution handling.
  • Low volume reactants usage
  • Easy remote controlled syringe refill and solution exchange
  • Rapid change of optical setup

A total of 90 zero-G parabola were executed in three flights and all the Bio-Logic instrumentation performed on nominal performances even in this very unusual environment.

Rapid kinetics experiments at zero-G may prove in the future to be an invaluable analytic tool for the study of polymerization processes or of reactions in the presence of aggregation or for all kinetic processes that involve heterogeneous phases.

Video

Click here to download a small (1154,52KB) RealMedia video.

Your experiment in zero-G

If you are interested to perform experiments in zero-G, please contact us

 
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