Apparatus and method for determining the amount of substance in small cavities

摘要

A method and apparatus for the simultaneous determination of the mass, of the volume or of the type of material samples in numerous small cavities (2), in particular of wells in microtiter plates. The method provides that the partially or completely filled with samples cavities energy by an energy source (5) is fed to. In this way, the samples are heated in a function of their mass is more or less strongly. The determination of the amount of substance in the individual cavities is thus returned to a temperature measurement. The parallel detection of the sample temperature in the individual cavities can be advantageously by an infrared camera take place as a detector (6). The overall system, which consists essentially of a power source and a detector, it is possible by the implementation of suitable calibrating - and measuring routines in an evaluation unit (7) are constructed in such a way that the quantities in the individual cavities be displayed directly.