Anish Bhattacharya

S R No. 14619

1. Write the aim of today's exercise.

The aim is to understand the working of micropipettes and to study the precision of
the three micropipettes given (P20, P200 and P1000). Since we will be using
micropipettes a lot, we require a knowledge of how to operate one and the problems
faced while using it.
2. How precise are the three pipettes you are using? Write your calculations
explaining your logic briefly.
We plot the volume of water measured using the micropipette against the mass of
the water, measured using a fine balance, for three trials. We study the precision of
the micropipettes. We also assume that the fine balance is calibrated perfectly.
Taking M = M0 M where m0 is the ideal slope, M is a measure of the error in
precision of the micropipette. Since density of water is 1 gcm-1 = 0.001 gl-1, M0 =
0.001

P20 Micropipette
Plot of volume of water measured using P20 micropipette against mass of the same
volume of water measured using the fine balance
Trial Slope, M M = M0 - M Mmean
1 0.00096414 0.00003586
2 0.00096566 0.00003434 0.00004051
3 0.00094865 0.00005135

The average error in the slope come out ~4% in the case of the P20 micropipette.

P200 Micropipette
Plot of volume of water measured using P200 micropipette against mass of the same
volume of water measured using the fine balance

Trial Slope, M M = M0 - M Mmean

1 0.00098091 0.00001909
2 0.00097586 0.00002414 0.00002023
3 0.00098252 0.00001748

The average error in the slope come out ~2% in the case of the P200 micropipette.
P1000 Micropipette

Plot of volume of water measured using P1000 micropipette against mass of the
same volume of water measured using the fine balance

Trial Slope, M M = M0 - M Mmean

1 0.00099493 0.00000507
2 0.00098720 0.00001280 0.00000681
3 0.00099742 0.00000258

The average error in the slope come out ~0.6% in the case of the P1000
micropipette.
We notice that our precision decreases as the volume of water to be measured
reduces, as can be observed from the increase in the percentage error in slope of
the graphs.
The error in measurement might be due to:
1. Error in calibration.
2. Human error.
 3. Explain the principle of 'air displacement' used in a micropipette.
The principle of air-displacement is exactly as the name suggests.
When the push button on the micropipette is pressed before taking the sample, a
piston descends through the micropipette column and pushed air out of the pipette.
Now the tip of the micropipette is immersed in the solution to be taken and the
push-button is slowly released. As the piston moves back up, it creates a partial
vacuum inside the chamber of the micropipette, which in turn, leads to the fluid
rising into the micropipette.
When the piston now attains a stationary state, the fluid stops rising. As the tip of
the micropipette is taken out of the fluid, the fluid inside the micropipette does not
flow out because the surface tension of the fluid prevents it from doing so. (Fluids
like chloroform, which have extremely low surface tension, tend to flow out of the
pipette spontaneously.)
Now when the push button is pressed again, it increases the pressure inside the
micropipette and pushes the fluid out of the it. When the push-button is pushed
further from the first lock position to the second lock position, it pushes the last of
the remaining fluid out of the micropipette, thus entirely emptying it.
We note that in an air displacement type micropipette, there is always an air
column above the fluid inside the chamber of the micropipette.
http://www.johnmorris.com.au/files/product/attachments/1352/360016_opt2.pd
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4. Around which year in history was a micropipette designed, who designed

it, and for what purpose?
The micropipette was invented in 1957 by Heinrich Schnitger, who had grown
frustrated with repetitive pipetting of miniscule volumes using glass micropipettes.
He thus developed a prototype with a spring-loaded piston and a removable plastic
tip for containing the fluid.
5. Curiosity
Since fluids like chloroform cant be handled using an air-displacement
micropipette, due to its low surface tension, something else must be used. A positive
displacement micropipette is used for such cases. How does it work?