An aliquot is a defined volume of your sample. For example: you should aliquote your enzymes or FBS to avoid too many freezing and thawing cycles.
In chemical term an aliquot is a portion of a total amount of a solution. It also stands for a method of measuring ingredients below the sensitivity of a scale by proportional dilution with inactive ingredients In chemistry and pharmacology, dividing a solution of a reagent into aliquots is common so that there is no need to handle the total sample.
As per IUPAC, Aliquot is the known amount of a homogeneous material, assumed to be taken with negligible sampling error. The term ‘aliquot’ is usually used when the fractional part is an exact divisor of the whole (eg. 5ml is an aliquote of 20 ml). When you split a sample into two or more equal parts with an error rate of 5 percent or lower, the parts are called aliquots. Precisely, an accurately measured sub-volume of original sample is called aliquot. Pl refer following link-
http://goldbook.iupac.org/A00218.html
The main idea behind aliquote in chemistry is such that a given volume, usually very minute compared to the whole substance, is taken from a bulk sample. Apart from reducing sampling error, it prevents or reduces any form of inconsistency or interference with desired results. This is because an aliquote of 0.1mL from 500mL of 5mg/L solution will be easier to handle with highly sensitive equipment than 150mL of the same solution. It is important to note that 0.1mL and 150mL have the same concentration as the source solution, but with respect to the volume of the solution and the amount obtained, 150mL can not be referred to as an aliquote despite that the concentration remained the same. Therefore, aliquote usually refer to a very small part of a whole substance (usually a solvent or solution).
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