text: A microbatch usually involves immersing a very small volume of protein droplets in oil (as little as 1 µl). The reason that oil is required is because such low volume of protein solution is used and therefore evaporation must be inhibited to carry out the experiment aqueously. Although there are various oils that can be used, the two most common sealing agent  are paraffin oils (described by Chayen et al.) and silicon oils (described by D’Arcy). There are also other methods for microbatching that don't use a liquid sealing agent and instead require a scientist to quickly place a film or some tape on a welled plate after placing the drop in the well.
  Besides the very limited amounts of sample needed, this method also has as a further advantage that the samples are protected from airborne contamination, as they are never exposed to the air during the experiment.