Design and Implementation of a Portable High-Pressure Cleaner for Cleaning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Sample Tubes

Abstract

The amount of sample tubes used in liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments is large. It is often required that the sample tubes are cleaned and re-used. The cleaning efficiency and the degree of cleanness after cleaning directly affect the results of subsequent experiments. In the meanwhile, the waste produced during the cleaning process pollute the environment. In this work, a hand-held portable high-pressure cleaner for NMR sample tubes is developed, with its structure and function described in detail. Then, sample tubes with different solvents and solutions were cleaned with this apparatus and commercial NMR sample tube cleaning apparatus. The cleaning efficiency and cleanness were compared. Lastly, the degree of wear and tear on the NMR sample tube was evaluated after cleaning. The results demonstrated that the apparatus proposed in this work had a high cleaning performance and efficiency for the NMR sample tubes without heavy contamination, and caused less damage. The cleaning process does not require the use of any toxic organic solvent such that it is environment friendly.

Keywords

• cleaner
• nuclear magnetic resonance sample tube
• high-pressure
• solvent