Ahead of an XFEL experiment, it is important to know what the laboratory spaces have to offer and which equipment you need to bring with you from your home institute. Below is a list of the key equipment available for use as part of the SwissFEL Chemistry Lab for general use and for serial femtosecond crystallography sample preparation. Simply click on the arrow on the right of each item to see further details and links.
In addition to the equipment listed, SwissFEL has a limited supply of various consumables (plastic tubes, parafilm etc.). Please contact Emma Beale if you have specific requirements that are not listed here or if you have further questions ahead of your experiment.
General devices and equipment
Coy Lab’s vinyl anaerobic chambers provide a strict anaerobic atmosphere of 0-5 parts per million (ppm) using a palladium catalyst and hydrogen gas mix of 5%. The heavy duty vacuum airlock allows sample transfer without changes to the internal atmosphere.
The chamber is not kept under anaerobic conditions at all times, therefore please contact Emma Beale to ensure that setup takes place ahead of your scheduled experiment so that an optimal anaerobic environment can be achieved well in advance.
The chamber is kept in the Dark Room at SwissFEL, therefore, experiments requiring specific light conditions as well as anaerobic conditions can be carried out.
IMPORTANT: Use of the anaerobic chamber should ideally be requested within the proposal for an experiment. Failing this, supply of the gas mixture for operation of the chamber cannot be guaranteed due to long delivery times (8 weeks). Please give as much notice as possible if your experiment requires use of the chamber.
A small centrifuge with fixed angle rotor for 12 x 1.5/2 mL tubes. Max. speed: 14,500 rpm, 14100 × g.
A small centrifuge with fixed angle rotor for 12 x 1.5/2 mL tubes. Max. speed: 15000 rpm, 15595 x g.
The Hermle tabletop centrifuge provides several options for centrifugation of larger volumes. The centrifuge can be adjusted to temperatures between -20°C and +40°C. The unit is normally kept in the main Chemistry Laboratory but can be relocated to the Dark Room if required.
Available accessories:
- Swing-out rotor and buckets (12 x 15 mL or 8 x 50 mL). Max. speed: 5000 rpm, 3885 x g.
- Fixed-angle rotor (24 x 1.5 / 2 mL). Max speed: 14000 rpm, 18624 x g.
The Hirox RH-2000 Microscope is available for high-resolution imaging of samples. The microscope is permanently kept in the main Chemistry Laboratory. Images can be saved and analysed using the available basic license of the RH-2000 software.
The system is equipped with a motorised X-Y stage and a MXB-5000 REZ lens. The three objectives provide magnification from 35-5000x.
- Low-range: 35-250x
- Mid-range: 140-1000x
- High-range: 700-5000x
We have two of these dry baths available. We have the dual-block units which fit 48 x 2 mL tubes. The units can provide temperatures of approximately 25°C (i.e. +5°C from ambient temperature) up to 150°C.
Freezer with spark-free interior, especially for storing explosive and highly flammable substances. The interiors of the appliances are in compliance with the safety requirements of the EU Directive 94/9/EC (ATEX 95) and have been tested by electro-Suisse SEV, the ATEX conformity evaluation organization.
- The freezer has a static refrigeration system, precise electronics with digital temperature display, clear and comfortable drawers, self-closing door with integrated lock and acoustic and optical temperature and door opening alarm.
- Maximum temperature stability and constancy measured according to IEC 60068-3.
We have a number of portable LED flood lights that can be used to provide specific light conditions for light sensitive experiments.
- 2 x HLS 30 W IP65 RGB Flood Light
- 1 x HLS 60 W IP65 RGB Flood Light
The lights can be programmed easily via a remote to provide a range of wavelengths using the red, green and blue LEDs.
We have a small light microscope available for use. Please note that it does not have a camera attached and that images cannot be recorded from this microscope.
We have 3 of these units to offer users. All are equipped with an additional heat probe to control heating of the sample via a feedback loop.
- Maximum stirring capacity - 20 L
- Stirring speed range - 100-1500 rpm
- Temperature range - Room temperature to 340°C
The Mettler Toledo FiveEasy™ pH F20 with pH-Sensor LE 420 is available for measuring the pH of liquid samples. We provide calibration solutions for the system as well as 3 M KCl for storage of the probe.
We offer commercially produced NaOH and HCl solutions for users to adjust the pH of their solutions.
We have 4 sets of Gilson Pipetteman G 4-Pipette Kits (16 in total). Each kit contains a P2, P20, P200 and P1000 pipette. The pipettes are serviced annually to ensure they are correctly calibrated. One set is housed permanently inside the COY anaerobic chamber.
We provide non-sterile pipette tips for general use and routine applications (Eppendorf Quality epT.I.P.S.). For specific needs (e.g. sterile tips, RNase or DNase free) it is recommended to bring your own tips.
A small vacuum pump is available for use for sample or liquid filtering in concert with either a glass or plastic filtering assembly. We can offer disposable 43 mm PDMF membranes for these filtering requirements.
This pump is also used specifically for sample preparation for experiments at the CristallinaMX endstation.
This tube revolver or rotating mixer comes with various paddles for different tube sizes. Up to 4 of these paddles can be attached and a time. Each paddle can take:
- 7 x 10 to 15 mL tubes
- 15 x 1.5 to 2 mL tubes
- 21 x 0.5 to 0.8 mL tubes
The Nanodrop Onec Microvolume UV-Vis spectrophotometer measures samples over the wavelength range 190–850 nm. The pedestal uses 1-2 uL of sample, however there is also the option to use a 1 cm pathlength cuvette.
Spectra can be downloaded onto a USB stick as .csv files so that users can document their experiments.
We have 2 of these devices available for use. Both are equipped with the 3 inch platform.
Provides 18.2 MΩ water from a 7 L reservoir. The reservoir is refilled and filtered automatically at up to a maximum of 20 L per hour. The device has a continuous dispense and an aliquot dispense mode.
Equipment for serial femtosecond crystallography sample preparation
We have a variety of Hamilton Gastight® syringes from the 1700 RN series available for use. In between experiments, the syringes are cleaned with water and ethanol both manually and via sonication. Needles are available if required. We have the following sizes to offer:
- 25 uL
- 50 uL
- 100 uL
- 250 uL
- 500 uL
Please let us know if you would like to use these for your experiments and the approximate number of syringes required. In general, 6-8 syringes are sufficient for a 3 or 4 day SFX beamtime (allowing for breakages).
For HVE large reservoirs (130 uL), 100 uL syringes are used.
For the HVE extra-large reservoirs (230 uL), 250 uL syringes are used.
We have four 2-way couplers available for use. The couplers are compatible with the Hamilton Gastight® syringes that we have available. The couplers are cleaned with water and ethanol between experiments.
We have several 3-way couplers available for use. This device was developed in house and is referenced in the article 'Improving High Viscosity Extrusion of Microcrystals for Time-resolved Serial Femtosecond Crystallography at X-ray Lasers' by D. James et al., 2019.
The 3-way couplers are compatible with the Hamilton Gastight® syringes we have available for use. The three way couplers are available with two internal bore sizes, small and large, to accomodate larger crystals or crystals more susceptible to damage during mixing.
The image below is from the article linked above and shows a diagram of the device itself (A, B), a comparison of sample mixed with the same number of 'passes' through the 2-way coupler (C) and the 3-way coupler (D), and finally the mode of action of the 3-way coupler (E, D).
