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Why can heat buildup inside a centrifuge interfere with sedimentation?
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centrifuge
Figure 1: Tubular centrifuge
Heat buildup inside a centrifuge interferes with the sedimentation process primarily by creating thermal gradients within the rotor. When a rotor spins in air, gaseous friction causes the temperature to rise, often resulting in the periphery becoming significantly hotter than the axis.
These radial temperature variations induce convection currents within the liquid being processed. These currents cause the material to remix, which disrupts the orderly settling of particles and effectively counteracts the sedimentation process. To prevent these issues, many high-speed ultracentrifuges operate within an evacuated chamber to eliminate air resistance and the resulting heat buildup.1