Chromatography Forum

Hi,
does anyone have any advice/protocol for removing tributylamine (m/z 186) from a nanoLC/QToF system?
many thanks
Clive

Are you sure it's tributylamine? You would have to have had it in significant quantities.

Use an acidic washout solution - it'll help dissolve the TBA and carry it out of the system.

Hi,
does anyone have any advice/protocol for removing tributylamine (m/z 186) from a nanoLC/QToF system?
many thanks
Clive

Trace of TBA (186amu in +ESI) is very difficult to completely remove (after working with TBA).

1. Wash your HPLC with 0.1%v FA in water, then 0.1%v TFA in MeCN, then MeOH and water (approx. 50-100ml each). In some cases, you need to replace spare parts (degaser, capillaries, in-line/inlet filters etc.).

2. Wash injector/AS. In some cases, you need to replace spare parts (seals, syringe etc.).

3. Wash ion source.

P.S.: I don't use TBA anymore

Thanks for all the advice. We were using tributylamine as an ion-pairing reagent for the analysis of nucleotides, not knowing the sticky nature of the compound.

will try the advice and report back.
thanks
Clive