Lithium borate

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Lithium boric acid
Image:Lithium borate.jpg
General
Other names	Lithium borate
Molecular formula	Li₂B₄O₇
Molar mass	169.11 g/mol
Appearance	white powder
CAS number	[12007-60-2]
Properties
Density and phase	2.4 g/cm³, solid
Solubility in water	moderately soluble
Melting point	917°C
Boiling point	?
Hazards
EU classification	not listed
NFPA 704
Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa) Infobox disclaimer and references

Lithium borate (Li₂ B₄ O₇) is the lithium salt of boric acid.

[edit] Uses

Lithium borate can be used in the laboratory as buffer for gel electrophoresis of DNA and RNA. It has a lower conductivity, produces crisper resolution, and can be run at higher speeds than can gels made from TBE or TAE (5-50V/cm as compared to 5-10V/cm). At a given voltage, the heat generation and thus the gel temperature is much lower then with TBE/TAE buffers, therefore the voltage can be increased to speed up electrophoresis so that a gel run takes only a fraction of the usual time. Downstream applications, such as isolation of DNA from a gel slice or Southern blot analysis, work as expected with lithium boric acid gels.

Sodium borate is similar to lithium borate and has nearly all of its advantages at a much lower cost, but the lithium buffer permits use of even higher voltages due to the lower conductivity of lithium ions as compared to sodium ions.

When dealing with lithium boric acid, avoid strong acids. ^{[citation needed]}