Yeast cell disruption was assayed in 40-ml samples
sonicated for various exposure times at a nominal
power level of 60 W in a 20-kHz probe sonicator.
Aerosol formation made it impossible to sonicate
smaller volumes in the 20-kHz device. In the novel
tubular sonicator, samples of 0.6 ml were sonicated at
267 kHz for various exposure times at 36 W. Due to
differences in cell concentration between the 20 and
267 kHz samples, protein release was calculated as
Ag/ml protein released per 107 cells/ml of suspension
for comparison between the devices. Fig. 6 shows that
the rate of protein release was six times faster in the
tubular system. However, the cell volume was nearly
70 times larger in the 20-kHz device. Table 4 shows
the protein release, the percent increase in unviable
cells, v2 results for 30-s sonication and the sonication
time at which cell debris was present in the samples
for the 20-kHz probe sonicator and the tubular 267-
kHz sonicator, respectively.