# Do pipettes always outclass glass syringes?

I was previously working in a lab preparing lots of samples for gas chromatography that exclusively used glass pipettes and was able to get really high precision between replicates. Now I'm working on my own project doing a lot of liquid dilutions that need to be very accurate with an older pipette that I am looking to potentially replace for better results. I'm specifically looking at 1 mL volumes.

Tolerances for glass syringes seem to be about +/-1% (not as much info), where pipettes are +/-0.6% accuracy and +/-0.2% precision. There were definitely some other reasons to use syringes vs pipettes at my old lab, but are syringes really always outclassed by pipettes? Can an experienced syringe operator beat a pipette?

I realize tip choice, needle, calibration, and ambient temperature controls probably have larger effects than these differences (though seemingly favor syringes), so I am wondering more about the relative optimal performance of each.

• If evaporation is not a significant influence (depending on solvent's boiling temperature / concentration / exposed liquid area, temperature around, etc.) you might consider to determine the $\Delta{}m$ of tare of the syringe and filled syringe to substitute volume by mass and gravity. Jul 8 '20 at 21:10
• Always? It is difficult to use a pipette to inject into a port for a GC, or GC/MS.
– MaxW
Jul 8 '20 at 21:18