MS Centrifuge Tubes are available in polypropylene with flat, pierceable, frosted caps that won’t open when the tubes are boiled or autoclaved. Cylindrical plastic containers with conical bottoms, typically with an integral snap cap. They are used in molecular biology and biochemistry to store and centrifuge small amounts of liquid. As they are inexpensive and considered disposable, they are used by many chemists and biologists as convenient sample vials in lieu of glass vials. Made of polypropylene, they can be used in very low temperature (-80 °C to liquid nitrogen temperatures) or with organic solvents such as chloroform. They come in many different sizes, generally ranging from 250 μL to 2.0 mL. The most common size is 1.5 mL. Disinfection is possible (1 atm, 120 °C, 20 minutes), but due to their low cost and the difficulty in cleaning the plastic surface, they are usually discarded after each use.
