Agitating – By injecting gas into mixing chamber
Patent
1998-11-16
2000-05-09
Soohoo, Tony G.
Agitating
By injecting gas into mixing chamber
366106, B01F 1302
Patent
active
060594411
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the suspending of particles of a solid in a predetermined volume of liquid. More particularly, the invention deals with the suspending, or re-suspending, of particles when they are contained in a container, with a predetermined volume of liquid, the particles being partially collected in the form of a deposit or sediment immersed by the liquid at the bottom of the container.
The particles/liquid physical state previously described and defined is encountered in particular in certain analysis protocols or processes, especially biological ones, involving relatively heavy particles, for example each consisting of a magnetic substrate to which, for example, a reagent or an analyte is bound. In order to implement or continue the analysis process, it is essential to suspend or re-suspend the particles in the predetermined volume of liquid inside the container, since failing this the particles which have sedimented are removed from the analysis process and vitiate its result in terms of reliability, sensitivity and reproducibility.
Until now, these particles have been suspended by mechanical or fluidic means, for example by passing a gas stream through the liquid volume in the container, close to or in contact with the deposit of sedimented particles. An operation of this type generally leads to the formation of foam, at the level of the interface between the liquid volume and the atmosphere internal to the container; it therefore has to be controlled carefully in order to limit, and if possible eliminate, the formation of foam which, in particular, hampers any subsequent optical measurement taken through the container. In all, this suspending or re-suspending of particles starting from a deposit at the bottom of a container, with everything in a predetermined volume of liquid, represents an intricate and relatively time-consiming operation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention therefore relates to a suspending process which is relatively "gentle" while remaining efficient, in so far as it does not significantly disturb the interface between the predetermined volume of liquid and the gas atmosphere contained in the container, for example an analysis cuvette.
According to the present invention, it has unexpectedly been discovered that the desired result can be obtained by setting up a gas circuit in the container, partly in direct contact with the liquid, in a loop comprising at least two substantially parallel flows which are separated by a head loss located level with the bottom of the container, and alternating a gas stream travelling through the said container along the said gas circuit.
Preferably, inert solid beads are arranged freely at the bottom of the container.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be described in conjunction with the following drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of the device according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a graph depicting the results of a first experiment using the device shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a graph depicting the results of a second experiment using the device shown in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
As shown in FIG. 1, the device according to the invention generally comprises: 1 of a solid which are normally dispersed inside the container, in the volume of liquid, for example an aqueous phase; this container 3 has a flat bottom 3a and a neck 3b container 3, one end of which emerges from the neck 3b, forming a tubular gap with the latter, and the perforated other end 6 of which is located level with and against the bottom 3a of the container, thus forming, as described below, a head loss localized between the lower periphery of the conduit 3 and the bottom 3a opposite an axial passage 13a is formed
If necessary, the conduit 10/stopper 13 combination forms a component which is independent of the container 3 and can be introduced and extracted from the container 3, in order to suspend or re-suspend the particles 1 which will be discussed be
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patent: 2504009 (1950-04-01), Phillips et al.
patent: 3782698 (1974-01-01), Canning
patent: 4051204 (1977-09-01), Muller et al.
patent: 5135684 (1992-08-01), Mohn et al.
Bio Merieux
Soohoo Tony G.
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