This 47mm white filter membrane is used to filter water or liquid samples prior to microbial testing, capturing microorganisms on the membrane surface for subsequent culturing or analysis.

What is White Filter Membrane?
The white filter membrane 47mm is a pre-sterilized laboratory-grade filtration disc manufactured from Mixed Cellulose Ester (MCE) material. This sterile, gridded membrane is specifically designed for microbial analysis, bioburden testing, colony enumeration, and sample preparation across pharmaceutical, food safety, environmental testing, and research laboratory applications.

MATERIAL SCIENCE EXPLANATION 

What is MCE (Mixed Cellulose Ester)?
The white filter membrane is manufactured from MCE (Mixed Cellulose Ester), a precisely engineered material blend of cellulose acetate and cellulose nitrate. This specific material composition creates a filtration medium with optimized performance characteristics for microbiological applications. MCE membranes represent the industry standard for microbial analysis, sterility testing, and laboratory filtration procedures.

Material Composition and Structure
MCE is constructed from a mixture of cellulose acetate and cellulose nitrate in precise proportions. This blend creates uniform pore structures with exact sizing (available in 0.22µm and 0.45µm options), ensuring consistent microorganism retention across the entire filter surface. The uniform pore architecture is critical for accurate bacterial enumeration and quantitative microbiological analysis.

Hydrophilic Properties and Wettability
MCE membranes are inherently hydrophilic, meaning they are easily wettable by aqueous solutions. This hydrophilic nature enables rapid, uniform solution flow through the membrane while retaining microorganisms and particles of target sizes. The hydrophilic characteristic makes MCE ideal for aqueous sample filtration in microbiology, pharmaceutical testing, and food safety applications.

Chemical Compatibility and Inertness
MCE material maintains excellent chemical compatibility with standard laboratory solutions, culture media, staining reagents, and sterilization procedures. The material is chemically inert, meaning it does not react with or absorb substances that would compromise sample integrity or alter test results. This inertness is essential for accurate microbiological analysis and prevents contamination artifacts in critical testing procedures.

Thermal Stability and Sterilization
MCE membranes support thermal sterilization through autoclave procedures at 121°C, enabling sterilization validation and re-sterilization for specialized laboratory protocols. Maximum operating temperature is 130°C. While these membranes arrive pre-sterilized, the thermal stability enables additional sterilization cycles if required by laboratory procedures or regulatory requirements.

White Color Specification
The white membrane provides superior visibility compared to alternative membrane colors. The white surface enables clear observation of microbial colony development during incubation, particle accumulation on the filter surface, growth patterns during sterility testing, and sample filtration progress during analysis procedures. White color is the industry standard for visible microorganism enumeration.

Gridded Design Integration
The integrated 3x3mm grid pattern is chemically integrated into the MCE material without affecting membrane performance. The grid facilitates precise colony identification and counting procedures without inhibiting microbial growth or altering filtration characteristics. Grid design innovation enables efficient colony enumeration in bioburden testing and microbial analysis applications.

APPLICATIONS

• Pharmaceutical and Cosmetic Bioburden Testing: Essential for pharmaceutical quality control procedures, bioburden testing for drug products, and cosmetic product microbial analysis. Used to verify microbial load in formulations, establishing product safety and regulatory compliance. Critical for validating manufacturing processes and confirming product sterility before distribution.
• Microbial Water Analysis and Quality Testing: Standard tool for bacteria enumeration in water samples, drinking water quality analysis, municipal water testing, and environmental water microbiology. The gridded design facilitates precise bacterial colony counting on filter surfaces. Used by water utilities, environmental laboratories, and regulatory testing facilities.
• Beverage Industry Microbiological Testing: Critical for microbiological testing in beverage manufacturing, brewery quality assurance, juice product safety testing, dairy product microbiology, and wine/beer production. Detects bacterial contamination and ensures product microbiological safety before consumer distribution.
• Sterility Testing and Assurance Procedures: Used in pharmaceutical sterility testing procedures, sterilization validation workflows, and sterility assurance testing for medical devices and injectable products. Pre-sterilized format supports rigorous sterility protocols and regulatory-compliant testing documentation.
• Colony Enumeration and Bacterial Counting: The 3x3mm gridded design facilitates colony identification and accurate counting without inhibiting microbial growth. Essential for quantitative microbiological procedures, bacterial enumeration analysis, and precise colony-forming unit (CFU) determination in laboratory testing.
• Environmental and Soil Microbiological Testing: Used for environmental microbiology testing, soil microbiological analysis, surface contamination assessment, and environmental sampling procedures. Supports regulatory environmental testing requirements for contamination detection and microbial load determination.
• Research Laboratory Applications: Standard equipment for microbiology research, bacterial culture work, cell filtration procedures, and laboratory research applications requiring precise sample filtration and microbial analysis. Used in academic research institutions and industrial research laboratories.
• Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Testing: Used in clinical diagnostics for bacterial culture analysis, patient specimen processing, clinical microbiological testing procedures requiring filtration and microorganism enumeration, and diagnostic culture work.
• Food Safety Laboratory Testing: Essential for food safety laboratories, food processing quality assurance, pathogen detection procedures, and food microbiology testing ensuring product safety and regulatory compliance. Used throughout food manufacturing supply chains for contamination screening.
• Air Quality and Particle Analysis: Used for air monitoring procedures, environmental air quality testing, particle analysis, and contamination assessment in laboratory cleanroom environments and industrial air quality monitoring.

STERILIZATION AND SAFETY 

• Gamma Irradiation Sterilization Process: This white filter membrane is pre-sterilized using gamma irradiation, a proven sterilization method eliminating all microorganisms without chemical residues. Gamma irradiation at 25-45 kGy achieves SAL 10⁻⁶ sterility assurance levels, meeting strict pharmaceutical and laboratory standards. Gamma irradiation is the preferred sterilization method for laboratory consumables as it does not leave chemical residues that could interfere with sensitive microbiological analysis.
• Sterility Assurance Level (SAL): The SAL 10⁻⁶ standard ensures that the probability of a single viable microorganism remaining on or in the product is no more than one in a million. This pharmaceutical-grade sterilization assurance makes the filter suitable for critical pharmaceutical testing and sterility validation procedures where absolute contamination prevention is essential.
• Ready-to-Use Convenience: No sterilization, validation, or preparation required. Open the package and use immediately in your laboratory procedures. This convenience streamlines workflows and reduces procedural complexity in high-volume testing environments where sample processing speed is critical.
• Individual Sterile Wrapping Protection: Each membrane filter arrives individually wrapped in sterile packaging, maintaining sterility from manufacture through laboratory use. Individual wrapping prevents cross-contamination during storage and handling, ensuring contamination-free analysis from package opening through testing completion.
• Thermal Sterilization Compatibility: While pre-sterilized, MCE membranes support autoclavable re-sterilization at 121°C for laboratory protocols requiring sterilization validation or additional sterilization cycles. This thermal compatibility provides flexibility for specialized laboratory requirements and regulatory-mandated sterilization documentation.
• Material Safety and Biocompatibility: MCE material is biologically inert with free-of-surfactants composition minimizing risk of sample interference or contamination artifacts. Material composition ensures safe use across standard microbiological applications and culture media types without adverse reactions.
• Log Reduction Value Performance: Achieves Log Reduction Value >7, indicating sterilization efficiency exceeding 99.99999% effectiveness. This exceptional sterilization efficiency supports rigorous pharmaceutical and clinical testing requirements where high confidence in sterilization is mandatory.