What is the Smallest Sample Volume You Can Use in 96 Well Plates?

For high throughput laboratories, 96-well plates offer a number of advantages over chromatography vials such as cost savings and easy automation capabilities. Different well plate types serve different purposes. For example, you may use a larger (1 or 2 mL) plate for the initial steps of your workflow, but then need to transfer to a smaller size for reconstituting or other steps utilizing smaller amounts of sample volume. But, what if you could eliminate the transfer step all together? With our TrueTaper well plates, this is a reality – a significant advantage to transferring between plates.

What Volume of Sample Can I Use in the TrueTaper Plates?

These TrueTaper plates are available in both 1 and 2 mL well volume sizes. The tapered well bottoms hold 50 and 100 μL, respectively. And you can use even smaller sample volumes, dependent on the depth your injection needle is set to. The tables below show the well volumes at each 1 mm increment up to 20 mm from the bottom of the well for both the 1 and 2 mL plates:

As you’ll notice, the bottom portion of these plates can hold a very small amount of sample, down to 3 μL, with total well volumes of up to 2 mL when utilizing the entire well.. If this is something that is of interest to you, reach out to one of our product specialists or request a quote!

What if My Sample Isn’t Compatible With Plastic Well Plates?

We’ve still got options for you! For those of you who have been around for a while, you may have seen this topic covered in past blogs. But, in case you missed it, we offer glass vial inserts in a 96-well plate format. This is ideal for customers working with hydrophobic peptides, or other applications where the analytes would “stick” to plastic.

Well Plate Overview

Whether you’re looking for an in-stock alternative to a well plate you’re already ordering elsewhere, or need something better suited to your application, our product specialists are here to assist you. Visit our website to chat with someone real time, or reach out to our team by email for a prompt response.