How can the evaporation of medium be prevented?

Depending on the incubation conditions, small volumes of medium can evaporate quickly, especially during long-term experiments. In addition, all cell culture incubators require a lengthy time to recover humidity, particularly after opening the door. While temperature and CO₂ recover within minutes, full humidity recovery can take several hours.

Due to these issues, we recommend using one of the following techniques for minimizing evaporation:

• Place the cell culture vessel into a Petri dish that is packed with wet tissues.
• Seal the culture vessel with Parafilm.
• Seal the culture vessel with ibiSeal, a self-adhesive cover film for open wells and reservoirs.
• Use the ibidi Anti-Evaporation Oil (e.g., Silicone oil).

Detailed protocols and recommendations can be found in our Application Note 12: Avoiding Evaporation: Humidity Control in Cell Culture (AN 12) (PDF).