Chromatography Forum

Hey guys,

I am a PhD student and I have a small question. I am working with a shimadzu series 10 HPLC that has a UniFlows Degasys DG1310 degasser.

I wish to clean or do the required maintenance for it, as I have been getting some ghost peaks in my gradient run lately and the size of the ghost peaks has reduced after bypassing the degasser. This degasser has never been maintained and I do not have a manual for it (couldnt find one on the internet as well).

Can someone help me with some basic diagnostics and cleaning procedures to ensure that the degasser still has some life.

Thanks

Mukul Ashtikar

you can do 2 things
wash with high organics
100% ACN or THF

you can also use very mild detergents as well.
do not use a pure solution!!
use a diluted solution whose Ph is above 2 and not more then 9, this can also help clean the degasser channels.

What you are doing already is what we have had to do in our industrial lab as our degasser is also broken and is actually introducing air rather than removing it! We just ensure we degas our mobile phases by filtration and sonication before attaching the solvent lines and you can also use an end line filter too (if you dont already) to minimise air then simliar to you plumbing them in bypassing the degasser. If you're doing this and leave mobile phases for more than a few days sitting perhaps re-sonicate to minimise any issues. We havent noticed and detrimental effects on our baselines from degassing like this to using the actual (working!) degasser. The cost of parts/engineers to fix whatever has gone wrong isn't really worth it unless you're really short of time to spend degassing.

lynz x

Thanks unmgvar and lynzjm for the comments...

@Lynzjm, the degasser is working it probably had some kind of microbial buildup or got contaminated somehow...

Anyway purging the degasser with 1% acetic acid and then with ACN seems to have done the job.

Cheers!

M

aaah thats much nicer to fix lol! We use 50/50 IPA to flush our equipment lines as well! Glad you got it sorted Wish ours would come back to life too!

lynz x