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What is lyophilisation (freeze-drying)?
How freeze-drying works, why research peptides are supplied lyophilised, and what the dried powder or cake in a vial should look like.
Drying without heat
Lyophilisation, or freeze-drying, removes water from a product without heating it. The product is frozen, then put under a vacuum so the ice turns straight into vapour (sublimation) instead of melting first.
The three stages
Freezing: the solution is cooled until it is completely solid.
Primary drying: under vacuum, with a little controlled heat, the ice sublimes away. This removes most of the water, often around 95%, and is usually the longest stage.
Secondary drying: the temperature is raised to drive off water still bound to the product (desorption), leaving a dry, porous solid.
Why peptides are supplied this way
Many peptides break down in water over time, for example through deamidation, oxidation or hydrolysis of their peptide bonds. Removing the water slows this right down, so a sealed lyophilised peptide keeps far longer than the same peptide in solution, and is easier to ship and store.
What it looks like
A lyophilised peptide usually forms a white or off-white "cake" or loose powder at the bottom of the vial. It can look small, because a few milligrams of peptide takes up very little space, and it may break up or shift in transit without any effect on the contents. Some peptides have a colour of their own: GHK-Cu, for example, is blue.
For how to store lyophilised vials, see our guide to storing lyophilised peptides.
Related products
- Bacteriostatic waterBacteriostatic water is sterile water with benzyl alcohol (typically 0.9%), used in the lab to reconstitute lyophilised peptides. What it is and how to store it.
- GHK-CuGHK-Cu is the copper complex of the tripeptide glycyl-histidyl-lysine, found naturally in human plasma. Structure, research background and lab storage.
All products are sold strictly for in-vitro laboratory research. They are not medicines, food or cosmetics, and are not for human or veterinary use. Nothing on this page is medical advice.