Syringe Filter

One important piece of advice, before doing an air purge, make sure the vial/cartridge you are filtering into has a vacuum. I created a vacuum in the vial I was using by removing air with an insilin syringe, pulling out 3ml of air. Trying to air purge without vaccum was how I lost .5ml of the 3ml filtered last time.
I was planning on piercing my cartridges with a second sterile needle while I injected the solution to give the air somewhere to escape. Your solution makes a lot of sense, though. Did you have any trouble drawing that much of a vacuum?
 
I was planning on piercing my cartridges with a second sterile needle while I injected the solution to give the air somewhere to escape. Your solution makes a lot of sense, though. Did you have any trouble drawing that much of a vacuum?
That is what I do. It releases the vacuum and equalizes the pressure while you fill it.
 
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I was planning on piercing my cartridges with a second sterile needle while I injected the solution to give the air somewhere to escape. Your solution makes a lot of sense, though. Did you have any trouble drawing that much of a vacuum?
careful with the cartridges. the stopper can blow out if you try to fill one without giving the air somewhere to go.
 
I was planning on piercing my cartridges with a second sterile needle while I injected the solution to give the air somewhere to escape. Your solution makes a lot of sense, though. Did you have any trouble drawing that much of a vacuum?
No, no issue. Just pull the air out. I was using a vial this time though.

Just tried creating a vaccum in a cartridge and the stopper moved up to the top. Might not be able to create a vaccum, but if the stopper position is dependent on the volume it may still work.

I'll try doing an air purge into a cartridge later and report back.
 
Just tried creating a vaccum in a cartridge and the stopper moved up to the top.
That would really worry me. I don't have one in hand yet, but if the stopper moves forward, isn't the rear of the vial exposed to the atmosphere? That part's no longer going to be sterile, theoretically, and if you move the stopper backwards again then the non-sterile part becomes reconnected to the sterile inside.

Probably overthinking this, I see tons of people recommending buying cartridges from aliexpress which make no mention of being sterile in the first place and not reporting any problems.
 
Very good point @LEPacker. I'm actually embarrassed that didn't occur to me. And while it might be a slight risk, if nothing else I think it might defeat the purpose of filtering in the first place.

With that in mind, I'll stick with filtering into vials.
 
@fetefille, have you done any further tests on your Cobetter filters? You mentioned in your earlier post you thought there was a chance you did something wrong and your zero loss might be too good to be true.

I've now observed zero loss with the Cobetter filters after an air purge, but I'm also not 100% sure I did everything right. Just looking to compare notes.
I don’t think it’s zero, but dang near close. Still not satisfied though, lol. There’s no way for me to do it up right like Peptest, so my findings aren’t “real,” but for my satisfaction they work. I did notice a difference in the amount lost when I wet it vs when I didn’t. Wetting is important!
 
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Okay, quick update on my 2nd practice round. Still using the .65/.22 13mm Cobetter double filters.

Took my time and was super careful this round. Also tried an air purge. Filtered 1 ml of bac water. After the air purge, losses were neglectable. 2 units lost out of 100 filtered. Just to make sure I didn't damage the filter after the air purge I filtered a bit more water and there was no difference in the amount of resistance. So I don't think I damaged the filter with the air purge.

I'll continue to experiment and report back (and others please do the same), but based on this, it seems losses for the 13mm filters might be a bit overstated. At least for the Cobetter filters.

One important piece of advice, before doing an air purge, make sure the vial/cartridge you are filtering into has a vacuum. I created a vacuum in the vial I was using by removing air with an insilin syringe, pulling out 3ml of air. Trying to air purge without vaccum was how I lost .5ml of the 3ml filtered last time.
Hi, I'm about to try filtering for the first time tomorrow. Would you mind explaining the air purge? I keep seeing the term but I'm afraid I'm not quite grasping what it is/how to do it. I'm eager to avoid losing product or doing anything to introduce any contamination during this whole process.

Anyone else have any tips or tricks from doing this a few times? I'm going to go slowly but still feel bound to screw it up somehow.

I have sterile 1" luer lock needles, 3 ml syringes, Ks-tek 3 ml vials, exam gloves, and a stainless steel surface. I'm planning to reconstitute and filter T60s w/2.0 mL of Hospira bac water. Using peptidetest's .22 um PES filters.
 
What I did was draw up a bit of air behind the peptide in the syringe. Then push that air through the filter after pushing through the liquid.

Also flushed with bac water after. To make sure i didn't damage the filter, I made note of how much resistance there was before and after the air purge. If there was less resistance, then the filter was probably damaged, but the resistance was the same before/after (as best i could tell anyway, I don't have a way to measure).
 
Anyone else have any tips or tricks from doing this a few times?
My understanding is that after filtering the pep into the sterile vial, draw air from that vial while the needle is still inserted and push it back out again which should release remaining solution held in filter. So filtering and air purge is done via a single needle poke into the vial.
 
@PopTart, did you remove and re-attach the filter doing it this way? At least for the filters I have, it's very difficult to pull air in through the filter.

The way I did it was to draw air before drawing up the unfiltered peptide. But that was just based on what someone wrote on one of these boards, doesn't mean it's right. I think most everyone is learning as we go on this topic (including me if that wasn't obvious)
 
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@PopTart, did you remove and re-attach the filter doing it this way? At least for the filters I have, it's very difficult to pull air in through the filter.
To be honest, I haven’t filtered yet. Was hoping you would pop in here and help straighten out the process.

If I need to do that, should I separate the filter from the syringe while keeping the needle in the vial, draw air into syringe, reattach, then air purge?
 
There Would be pros and cons to doing it that way vs what I did. I had to keep more air in the syringe so less bac water. filling the syringe with the max 3ml my lure locks hold is another way to keep losses to a minimum.

Less bac water means less dilution, so higher losses in mg for the volume lost whuch is fixed.

But fewer steps with the way I did it.
 
If I need to do that, should I separate the filter from the syringe while keeping the needle in the vial, draw air into syringe, reattach, then air purge?
That sounds reasonable, but there may be something I'm overlooking. Like I said, I think we are all learning as we go on this.
 

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