• Question: How do you make pure water

    Asked by Louis to Philip, Maxime, Jake, Ann, Annette, Amy Heather on 19 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Philip Schuler

      Philip Schuler answered on 19 Nov 2019:


      Through ultrafiltration / membrane filtration, see for example here
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrafiltration

    • Photo: Ann Reen

      Ann Reen answered on 20 Nov 2019:


      Hi Louis, In the lab here we either distill the water or use reverse osmosis to purify water .

    • Photo: Amy Heather Fitzpatrick

      Amy Heather Fitzpatrick answered on 21 Nov 2019:


      Hi Louis. So the pure water that I use in the lab needs to be free of DNA and RNA and minerals. So usually what I do is I buy reverse osmosis purified water and I add something called Diethylpyrocarbonate, and heat for water for 12 hours at 37° C and then after this I put the water inside an autoclave(big oven) and heat at 121° C for 15 minutes. The Diethylpyrocarbonate removes all of the RNA and autoclaving removes the DNA.

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