Small Molecules Physical Appearance

Many of our products are sold in very small quantities, and some are transparent, and/or are lyophilized to thin films on the walls of the vial making it difficult or impossible to see the contents of the vial. It is entirely normal for many of our products for the vials to appear empty on visual inspection. These materials cannot be retrieved from the vial in solid form. Add an appropriate solvent (as indicated on the datasheet) and vortex the vial briefly or pipette the solvent on the walls of the vial to insure that all of the compound is recovered. The resulting solution can then be used in the application of your choice.

Most of our lipid products are supplied neat (i.e. they are not dissolved in a solvent) and will appear as an oily liquid coating the inside of the vial. Lipids will typically need to be dissolved in order to recover the material from the vial. Add an appropriate amount of solvent (solubility information will be provided on the datasheet for the specific lipid you purchased) to the vial, vortex briefly, and then retrieve the resulting solution for use (or aliquot for later use if desired).

Note: lipids that are supplied neat are pure substances, and can be treated exactly as you would solids for purposes of molar concentration calculations etc.

Compounds with relatively low melting points will often appear to be either waxy or sticky solids. These materials are difficult to remove from the vial in the solid form, and recovery will be quite low if you attempt to “weigh out” these materials. It is recommended that such products be dissolved in an appropriate solvent and recovered in solution.