Robox - Sample Oxidation System
From Sample Preparation
It has long been recognized that problems with liquid scintillation counting samples, i.e. problems of solubility and chemical- and color-quenching, can be overcome by sample combustion and collection and counting of the oxidation products. This is especially so for the conversion of 14C-labeled compounds to a common denominator, 14CO2. Sample combustion is applicable to every type of sample material, even the most intractable - tissue, bone, soil, plant matter, feces, etc. It is particularly useful for colored substances, including liquids - blood, urine, digests. And some less obvious applications are with TLC plate scrapings and filter paper strips. However, something so easy to state has sometimes been not so easy to implement.
Description
As far back as 1961, we find references for oxygen-flask (Schöniger) combustion for liquid scintillation sample preparation. Since then, almost every conceivable method and many different trapping agents have been tried and almost all of them can be made to work, but with just one sample at a time. Several systems have been developed that combine combustion, trapping in scintillation fluid, and delivery of the product directly into a counting vial. Two or three of these have enjoyed moderate success - for the most part they meet their claims - but they, too, are manually operated, one sample at a time. With a burn/trap cycle of 3-5 minutes per sample, a persistent operator can prepare perhaps 100 samples per day in an unpleasant and perhaps unhealthy environment of scintillation fluid and trapping agent vapors.
Until now, there has not been a successful automatic combustion system. Researchers with the most samples, who would benefit most from a good method, are forced by practicality to look to other methods, away from combustion. But, they find that samples prepared by intricate solubilization/digestion methods are subject to variable quenching and require longer counting, quench correction, and more replicates; their time is ill-used.
The Robox solves these problems. Load it with up to 240 14C-labeled samples of any type weighed out in bar-coded ceramic 'boats' and allow it to operate unattended. A laboratory robot moves samples to a high temperature combustion furnace where they are burned in an oxygen atmosphere. 14CO2, possibly with trace 14CO, pass through a catalyst to complete the oxidation. 14CO2 is trapped in a bar-coded liquid scintillation counting vial, which is then capped and transferred to a scintillation counter rack, ready for direct placement in a counter. The Robox does the entire job without the need for operator intervention. You and your associates will have far more time for productive work than ever before.
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