Fig. 3

Optimizing decontamination protocol. a Schematic showing tip layout during a typical pipetting step. b Effect of varying the air-gap on the effectiveness of sterilization using 12% sodium hypochlorite for different values of ‘n’—number of disinfectant washes and ‘t’—disinfectant hold time. Each bar represents effectiveness calculated from 8 replicates. Negative controls using water as the disinfectant resulted in zero sterilization effectiveness for all values of ‘n’ and ‘t’. c Proposed mechanism for enhanced sterility upon increasing the volume of the air-gap to be larger than pipetted volumes. d Sterilization effectiveness for different disinfectants with an air-gap of 250 μL. Each bar represents effectiveness calculated from 72 replicates