What Is an Aliquot?
An aliquot is a specific, precisely measured portion of a larger volume of liquid. It is a sample taken from a whole solution, where the aliquot is intended to be perfectly representative of the original substance in terms of concentration and composition.
Section 2: The Purpose of Taking an Aliquot
The main purpose of aliquoting is to perform an analysis or experiment on a small, manageable sample without consuming the entire source material. This practice conserves valuable reagents, allows for multiple tests to be run from the same batch, and ensures consistency across different experimental setups.
Section 3: A Practical Example
Imagine a biologist has a 50 mL stock solution of an enzyme. To test its activity under different conditions, they might use a micropipette to take several 1 mL aliquots. Each 1 mL aliquot can then be used for a separate test, leaving the original stock solution preserved for future experiments.
Section 4: Why Aliquoting Is Important for Accuracy
Proper aliquoting is fundamental to achieving accurate and reproducible scientific results. Using precise instruments like pipettes or burettes ensures that every sample used in an experiment is identical. This minimizes variability and allows scientists to be confident that their results are reliable and not due to inconsistencies in the samples.