Step 1: To avoid scratching the inside walls of the quartz cuvettes, use soft, thin, long-tip plastic pipettes to remove samples from the cuvettes.
Step 2: Create a 2 percent vol/vol solution of Hellmanex III in double-distilled deionized water (milliQ)
Step 3: Immerse the quartz cuvettes for at least 30 minutes in this solution.
Note: Don’t forget to wear gloves
Step 4: Put on gloves. Remove the cuvettes from the Hellmanex solution and thoroughly rinse them in running single-distilled water. Hold each cuvette with your fingers, fill them with single-distilled water while the water is flowing, and then hold them upside down and carefully shake them out. Repeat this process 4-5 times for each cuvette separately until the soap is entirely removed, ensuring that no trace of soap remains in the end. Because the soap is slick and the cuvettes are pricey, exercise extreme caution.
Step 5 is repeated a minimum of ten times with deionized double distilled water (milliQ), as in step 4, to ensure that no trace of the single distilled water remains.
Step 6: Repeat step 5 five times with technical grade ethanol to eliminate water and any water marks.
Step 7: Repeat step 6 five times with technical grade acetone to eliminate alcohol and expedite the drying process.
Pass dry air-flow (pre-dehumidified by CaCl2) through each Acetone-washed cuvette to dry it, or allow it overnight to dry automatically.