Vivaspin® Pressure Cells, Vivapore® Static Ultrafilters and Ultrafiltration Membrane Discs
While centrifugal filters have become the gold standard for rapid concentration and buffer exchange of small sample volumes, they are not always the most practical choice.
For special and customized applications, such as single or high throughput sample processing, Sartorius is proud to offer ultrafilters with unique operating methods that enable low-shear processing with reduced or no equipment requirements. These include ultrafilters driven by positive pressure or solvent absorption, accessories for low-volume continuous diafiltration, and ultrafiltration membrane discs.
Shop Specialist Ultrafiltration Products
Pressure Cell and Static Ultrafilters Offer:
Small by design. Pressure cell and solvent absorption formats take up minimal space for clutter-free benchtop or refrigerated sample concentration.
Take the pressure off your sample. For sensitive targets such as viruses and multiprotein complexes, low-shear techniques can improve recoveries and prevent degradation.
There is no need to balance a rotor when you’re not using a centrifuge. Handle single samples easily, equipment-free or with a readily available compressed gas source.
High throughput, equipment-free. In research labs or the clinic, handling hundreds of similar samples daily shouldn’t increase demand on your centrifuge or risk carryover.
Pipette-friendly to the last drop. Avoid target loss with sample-safe dead stops that are perfectly complemented by Optifit tips for easy retentate collection.
Track in a snap. A quick glance at the printed graduations or concentration factors will tell you if your process is complete or if you need to run it a little longer.
Pressure Cell and Static Ultrafilters and Their Applications
Positive Pressure Ultrafiltration
Compressed air or an inert gas is used to create a pressure difference across the ultrafiltration membranes that drives the separation of particles or macromolecules from liquids based on their size or molecular weight. A sample (feed) containing the molecule of interest is dispensed into a filter unit equipped with ultrafiltration membranes. When gas pressure is applied, larger molecules in the sample are retained above the membrane (retentate), while smaller molecules and solvent pass through (permeate).
Need a low-shear solution for processing larger sample volumes?
Positive pressure ultrafiltration is a convenient centrifuge-free alternative for UF | DF of small to medium sample volumes.
Faster Processing Under Pressure
For even faster ultrafiltration and diafiltration, the pressure difference across the membrane can be applied through two sources. In Vivaspin®️ 20, positive pressure can be combined with centrifugation (pressure-fugation), while Vivaspin®️ 100 can be continuously pressurized and the ultrafilter placed on an orbital shaker (pressure-shake).
Ready to try Vivaspin® as a pressure cell ultrafilter?
Pressure-fugation and pressure-shake operation can be used to increase the speed of positive pressure UF | DF.
Advantages of Pressure Cells
Positive pressure ultrafiltration is a low-shear alternative to centrifugal filters and legacy stirred cells, making it especially valuable when handling sensitive samples such as membrane proteins, enveloped viruses, and multi-unit protein complexes. It is also a useful method when only a single sample must be concentrated, or when a refrigerated centrifuge is unavailable for processing temperature-sensitive samples. A further advantage of pressure cells compared to stirred cells is that there is no risk of concentrating samples to dryness.
Need a reliable way to concentrate membrane proteins?
Positive pressure ultrafiltration is an ideal solution to process shear-sensitive samples without the risk of degradation.
Keep Still and Concentrate
When access to a centrifuge is limited and a large number of samples must be processed on a daily basis, centrifugal ultrafiltration is impractical. Vivapore® ultrafilters passively concentrate samples by solvent absorption, which doesn’t require any equipment. These single units have a compact footprint for bench-top concentration without the risk of cross-contamination. Ultrafiltration process monitoring is possible at-a-glance with clear volume and concentration factor markings, while sample loss to dryness is eliminated.
Interested in making your buffer exchange process more efficient?
Choose Vivapore® for your research or clinical lab to concentrate proteins >15 kDa, equipment-free.
Selected Centrifugal Filter Resources
Specialist Ultrafilter Manuals
Select manual by language
EN
- Air Pressure Controller PDF | 513.2 KB
- Vivaspin® 6 | 20 - EN PDF | 1008.2 KB
- Vivaspin® 100 - EN PDF | 899.6 KB
- Vivapore® 5|10 PDF | 289.7 KB
- Manual_Vivapore_5_10_20_SLU6098-p210808.pdf PDF | 40.6 KB
DE
- Vivaspin® 6 | 20 - DE PDF | 1.0 MB
- Vivapore® 5 | 10 PDF | 298.3 KB
ES
- Vivaspin® 6 | 20 - ES PDF | 1.0 MB
- Vivapore® 5 | 10 PDF | 306.0 KB
FR
- Vivaspin® 6 | 20 - FR PDF | 1.0 MB
- Vivapore® 5 | 10 - FR PDF | 310.3 KB
IT
- Vivaspin® 6 | 20 - IT PDF | 1.1 MB
- Vivapore® 5 | 10 - IT PDF | 295.0 KB
Frequently Asked Questions
Sartorius offers special ultrafilters with the following MWCO | pore size membranes:
- Vivaspin® 20: 3 - 1,000 kDa or 0.2 μm PES
- Vivaspin® 100: 5 – 1,000 kDa or 0.2 μm PES
- Vivapore®: 7.5 kDa PES
- Ultrafiltration membranes: 5 – 20 kDa CTA, 2 – 100 kDa Hydrosart® RC, or 1 – 300 kDa PES
For more detailed information on membrane availability, please refer to the product datasheets.
12 or 48 units (Vivaspin® 20), or 2 or 10 units (Vivaspin® 100), with standard caps (for centrifugal operation), and a quick start guide.
30 ultrafilters, one stand for four units, and a quick start guide.
Each pack of Vivapore® 10 also includes one expansion reservoir.
10 ultrafiltration membranes.
Yes, they are. While we have taken steps to minimize our environmental impact with quick start guides in the product packaging, if you need more information on how to use our products, the full instruction manual can be downloaded from this page or in the eShop.
For either of these ultrafilters, a pressure regulator such as the Air Pressure Controller must be connected to a compressed gas source (e.g., air, argon or nitrogen cylinder).
In addition, Vivaspin® 20 requires a pressure head and a charge valve, while Vivaspin® 100 requires a pressure head and seal.
Yes. While each pressure head is already supplied with five seals, replacement seals can be ordered separately when required.
Yes, you can. Using Vivaspin® 20, large sample volumes should either be concentrated to 2 mL or less, or divided between several ultrafilters in 2 mL aliquots. Insert a diafiltration cup into each ultrafilter, above the sample, and fill with 10 mL exchange buffer. When centrifuged, diafiltration occurs at the same rate as ultrafiltration.
The performance of ultrafiltration membranes degrades with repeated use, so Vivaspin® 20 and Vivapore® centrifugal filters are designed for single use. This helps to reduce hands-on time, improve laboratory safety, and eliminate the risk of carryover.
However, cleaning and storage procedures are provided for Vivaspin® 100 so that they can be used multiple times.
In general, Hydrosart® RC membranes are easier to clean than other membrane materials, but you should consider if the risk of carryover and the additional time and materials required for cleaning outweigh the benefits of single use for each application.