Disruption Beads

Disruption beads for homogenizing, grinding and disintegrating biological samples with a BeadBeater. Please note: the beads come unwashed so must be thoroughly washed prior to use.

Yttrium-stabilized zirconia media offers superior density and hardness, which increase grinding efficiency while simultaneously decreasing milling time.

Garnet (an iron-aluminum silicate and sharp particle) can speed the disintegration of tough tissues, making it ideal for homogenizing samples that contain bacteria such as fecal or soil samples.

Yttrium Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) Beads

Yttrium stabilized zirconia (Y-TZP) beads are widely used for milling and dispersing various materials, being known for their strength, hardness and wear resistance as well as low contamination rates allowing them to be utilized across numerous processes.

Zirpro offers a full selection of ceramic milling media suitable for use in all forms of grinding and dispersing equipment – including ball, vertical, and horizontal mills – as well as high energy milling applications such as recirculation. Furthermore, Zirpro’s range of Y-TZP bead sizes offers solutions tailored specifically to meet the requirements of each process.

Addition of yttrium oxide improves the crystal structure of zirconium dioxide, increasing thermal shock resistance and fracture toughness for improved performance in high energy milling applications. Furthermore, Y-TZP beads are known for withstanding heavy impact loads – an invaluable characteristic.

Y-TZP beads can be found in numerous industries, from paints and printing inks and pigments, ceramic pastes or powders used by advanced ceramic producers; iron and chrome-based magnetic materials as well as electronic-grade ceramics; to manufacturing catalytic materials.

Quality matters with regards to Y-TZP beads; higher quality means longer life. One effective way of increasing lifespan is ensuring media balls are the appropriate sizes for the application – too small of bead sizes could cause milling or grinding processes to generate excessive heat.

Zirconia/Silica Beads

Yttrium stabilized zirconia is the media of choice in advanced industries due to its higher density and durability than glass or alumina beads, increasing grinding efficiency while shortening process times for industries such as pharmaceuticals, paints and inks. Furthermore, zirconia beads offer excellent thermal stability and ionic conductivity, making them suitable for use in high temperature ceramic composites and solid oxide fuel cells.

These zirconium (ceramic) beads measure 0.1mm in diameter. They have been acid washed, heat treated, and certified as nuclease and protease free – and come packaged in a 250g bottle to make use easier.

Triple-Pure YSZ beads are designed for homogenizing both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Their filling process involves special steps designed to eliminate DNase, RNase, protease and nucleases – suitable for use with Benchmark and Precellys homogenizers alike – as well as an optional 2ml prefilled tube (D1032-01) suitable for any bead homogenizer.

These YSZ beads are utilized by pharmaceutical and biotech companies, research universities, hospitals, and government labs. Fisher Scientific purchases them from MSE Supplies for distribution to its customers. If you require milling media with larger than 0.1mm balls please visit the Zirconia Milling Media product webpage.

Garnet Beads

Description – These Almandine Garnet beads feature deep red/brown hues with coin beads having some natural imperfections and natural blemishes, sold temporarily strung on 40cm approximate strands.

Garnets are highly resilient gemstones, offering great strength to those who wear them. Believed to help us overcome obstacles and bring good fortune, garnets are considered an astrological root chakra stone, known for fostering devotion, commitment, revitalizing feelings and sexuality as well as increasing trustworthiness and honesty in relationships.

Yttrium stabilized zirconia beads have become widely employed in advanced industries like pharmaceutical and paint production due to their density, hardness and exceptional grinding efficiency. This helps shorten process times while improving dispersion efficiency compared to glass or alumina beads. Furthermore, zirconia milling media boasts superior chemical and thermal stability that allows use in high temperature applications such as solid oxide fuel cells and ceramic composites.

Zirpro’s Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) beads are produced using advanced zirconia precursors in house. The high density media created from this process makes these YSZ beads suitable for all mill types, with ideal characteristics for recirculation, high energy processing and throughput applications. They have also been acid washed and heat treated before acid washing to eliminate nucleases and proteases; and come packed in 250g bottles compatible with Precellys homogenizers. For larger diameter YSZ beads please check our Zirmil(r) YSZ Milling Media product page

Chrome-Steel Beads

Stainless steel beads with a density of 7.9 g/cc can be used for dry-grinding leaves and seeds at ambient or liquid nitrogen temperatures, and for lysis of tough tissue like hair and fecal material. In contrast to their sharp, dense Garnet counterparts, Stainless steel particles do not fragment during beadbeating allowing homogenization conditions similar to Garnet without needing to mix in smaller numbers of glass or zirconia beads for homogenization purposes. When dry grinding at ambient or liquid nitrogen temperatures this method requires samples prepared in special reinforced polypropylene microvials (see XXTuff line) or stainless steel microvials fitted with silicone rubber caps when using this method of preparation of samples prepared in reinforced polypropylene microvials with silicone rubber caps containing silicone rubber caps for effective grinding results.

BioSpec offers Garnet and Stainless Steel Sample Homogenization Beads in three sizes for sample homogenization. Silicon Carbide and Chrome Steel beads boast advantages over their smooth counterparts in that they quickly disrupt cell membranes; however, these sharp particles adsorb fine particles of abrasion that contaminate cell lysates with yellow-gray particles easily separated through centrifugation, adsorption or precipitation.

Yttria stabilized zirconia beads boast high fracture toughness and wear resistance, helping reduce the chances of contamination from nucleases, proteases or enzymes. They also offer excellent thermal stability and ionic conductivity; making them useful in applications like ceramic composites and solid oxide fuel cells.