Industry: Pharmaceutical
Instrument: Apollo 9000
TOC Analysis of Low-level Samples: A Catalytic Combustion Approach
Historically, the UV/ Persulfate technique has been the preferred choice for ppb Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analysis in areas, such as clean in place (CIP) and water for injection (WFI) validations. The primary advantages have been its low system background and higher injection capabilities that yield easily obtainable low detection limits compared to alternative techniques, such as the combustion TOC analysis.
Conversely, combustion low-level TOC analysis has not been used widely because of:
- Poor Precision and Reproducibility
- High Method Detection Limits
These symptoms are systemic effects from the high system backgrounds arising from the catalyst and sample residues. Improvements made in new catalytic combustion TOC analyzers have lowered their detection limits to low ppb levels, opening an alternative to the UV/persulfate system in certain applications. Still why would one choose the combustion over the ease of use of UV/persulfate?
Recently some low-level TOC applications, such as cleaning validation, have built a strong argument for the use of catalytic combustion TOC because of better recoveries on proteins in comparison to other techniques.
|
