Hi Michael, besides the very valuable suggestion of Gianluca, which worked well in my PhD lab, more recently I had very good results using silica gel.
You can find desiccant beads of different diameter and pore size (for absorbing water normally around 2.5 nm). Self-indicating ones help you identify when the beads need changing. The resin is inexpensive and can be bought from well known lab chemicals suppliers as well as from Amazon and eBay. For 5 kilos resin 2.5-6.0 nm pores, self indicating (usually orange), which will last you ages you might be looking in the range of £200. We placed a couple of 40x30 cm pyrex oven trays, filled with beads, in proximity of the FPLC and fluorescence detector. RH in the double-glass door cabinet was monitored with a £10 humidity sensor. Every week/fortnight we swapped the wet beads with dry ones and regenerated the resin by leaving the trays overnight in the glassware drying oven (luckily we had synthetic chemists in the department who let us use it). After cooling down, the resin was stored in a sealed vessel until next use. A possibility we ruled out is to use a dehumidifier. This would require extra space to be located outside the FLPC cabinet, which is noisy, and needs adapting connectors which might not be H&S compliant or invalidate warranties. Putting the dehumidifier inside the cabinet would waste useful cold-storage space and create vibrations which interfered with the sensitive equipment. Hope this helps. Best Marco -- Marco Mazzorana, Ph.D. MX Senior Support Scientist Diamond Light Source, Ltd. Harwell Science and Innovation Campus OX11 0DE Didcot (United Kingdom) Tel +44 (0)1235 778643 -- Marco Mazzorana, Ph.D. MX Senior Support Scientist Diamond Light Source, Ltd. Harwell Science and Innovation Campus OX11 0DE Didcot (United Kingdom) Tel +44 (0)1235 778643 -- This e-mail and any attachments may contain confidential, copyright and or privileged material, and are for the use of the intended addressee only. If you are not the intended addressee or an authorised recipient of the addressee please notify us of receipt by returning the e-mail and do not use, copy, retain, distribute or disclose the information in or attached to the e-mail. Any opinions expressed within this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily of Diamond Light Source Ltd. Diamond Light Source Ltd. cannot guarantee that this e-mail or any attachments are free from viruses and we cannot accept liability for any damage which you may sustain as a result of software viruses which may be transmitted in or with the message. Diamond Light Source Limited (company no. 4375679). Registered in England and Wales with its registered office at Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1
