Cryogenic grinding

For example, thermoplastics are difficult to grind to small particle sizes at ambient temperatures because they soften, adhere in lumpy masses and clog screens.

The idea behind using a solenoid is that the only "moving part" in the system is the grinding media inside the vial.

The reason for this is that at liquid nitrogen temperatures (–196°C) any moving part will come under huge stress leading to potentially poor reliability.

Cryogenic milling using a solenoid has been used for over 50 years and has proven to be a very reliable method of processing temperature sensitive samples in the laboratory.

[6][7] Once ground, the fine powder consisting of broken cells (or "grindate") can be stored for long periods at –80°C without obvious changes to biochemical properties – making it a very convenient source material in e.g. proteomic studies including affinity capture / mass spectrometry.