ALZAID® Chemical Compatibility Test Kit

The ALZAID Test Kit allows assessment of agent and solvent compatibility with ALZET pumps. Use of this kit is strongly recommended under the following circumstances:

• The desired solvent is not known to be compatible with the pump reservoir (refer to list below)
• The agent is in its free base form
• The agent is known to bind tenaciously to polymeric materials

The ALZAID test kit can be used to determine the compatibility of the solvent alone or agent-solvent combinations by following the recommended procedures. Each test kit contains polymeric beads which consist of the same materials as the ALZET pump reservoir. The kit contains materials for four experiments.

Note: Ethanol is not compatible in concentrations exceeding 15%. This kit cannot be used to evaluate compatibility of solutions containing higher concentrations of ethanol.

An agent or solvent that is incompatible with the pump’s reservoir material still can be pumped using an ALZET pump. This is done by attaching an “external reservoir” to the pump. The contents of the external reservoir are displaced by the action of the pump. The external reservoir can be created easily, such as from coiled PE-60 catheter tubing, in a technique known as the Lynch coil. More about this simple technique

Commonly used solvents known to be compatible with ALZET pumps

• Acids, with pH greater than 1.8
• Bases, with pH less than 14
• Cremophor EL, up to 25% in water
• Culture media (1% benzyl alcohol as bacteriostatic)
• Cyclodextrins
• Dextrose, up to 5%, in water or NaCl
• N,N-Dimethyl formamide (DMF), up to 25% in water
• DMSO, up to 50% in water or polyethylene glycol
• DMSO, up to 50% in ethanol (< or = to 15%) and water
• Ethanol, up to 15% in water
• Glycerol
• 1-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone, up to 12.5% in water
• Phosphate buffer
• Polyethylene glycol 300 or 400, neat or in water
• Propylene glycol, neat or in water
• Ringer’s solution (with or without lactate)
• Saline, 0.9% (or other aqueous salt solution)
• Serum (rat, mouse, etc.)
• Solutol, up to 30% in water
• Triacetin, up to 5% in water
• Tween 80, up to 2%
• Water, distilled