Buffer and sample preparation

Lipid bilayers are commonly used to support biological nanopores. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Buffer and sample preparation is part of the Nanopore Wiki learning path. Buffer and sample preparation control ionic strength, pH, analyte state, background contaminants, and experimental reproducibility.

Core concepts

• Salt concentration affects conductance, screening, capture, and noise.
• pH changes pore charge, analyte charge, and protein stability.
• Sample aggregation, degradation, solvent carryover, and impurities can dominate signals.
• Preparation date, batch, filtration, and storage conditions should be recorded.

Preparation workflow

Step	Description
1	Define buffer composition and target concentration range.
2	Prepare blank controls and sample dilutions.
3	Check sample integrity and aggregation risk.
4	Record all preparation metadata before measurement.

Typical applications

• DNA, RNA, protein, peptide, particle, and small-molecule nanopore experiments.
• Troubleshooting clogging, adsorption, and inconsistent event rates.
• Sequencing library quality control.

Common pitfalls

• Copying buffer conditions between pore systems without validation.
• Ignoring carrier solvents and salt carryover.
• Using high concentration that causes clogging or overlapping events.

Related pages

• Experimental workflows
• Troubleshooting
• Noise and filtering
• Event detection

References

• Buffer solution
• pH