Team:UCLA/Notebook/Materials/24 August 2015

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Checking concentration of the dope from last Thursday

• We aliquoted 100 uL to check the dry weight
  • 11 mg in 100 uL
  • that's 11% wt/vol... which decreased
  • In addition, the dope has started gelling at the bottom of the tube
  • I think the dope is a lost cause. We'll have to do a new concentration dialysis.

Preparing HFIP dope

• 75 mg lyophilized silk in 268 uL of HFIP for a 28% w/v dope

• Our procedure for dissolving the dope DIRECTLY IN THE SYRINGE
  1. Prepare a tube apparatus with a tube that was already clogged. This will serve as the syringe "stopper." Add the stopper to the syringe luer lock
  2. Cut the lyophilized silk into small pieces
  3. Place the silk pieces into the syringe
  4. pipette in the HFIP volume
  5. Dip the plunger tip into HFIP
  6. insert the plunger into the syringe body
  7. invert the syringe, then push the plunger to purge some of the dead air. Ensure that ALL silk pieces are covered by the HFIP
  8. Wait for HFIP to dissolve the silk. Periodically remove the stopper. This will allow bubbles to form and escape.

• Some of our observations on this protocol:
  • push silk to the bottom of the syringe as you add the pieces. DON'T let the silk get densely packed!
  • cut the silk into the smallest pieces that you can
  • Don't drop any pieces!