Chromatography Forum

We have a dirty flow cell on our Cap LC and cannot get it clean. We have tried 100% H2O and 100% MeOH (overnight) but the back pressure is still very high.

Can anyone give some suggestions of what to try next?.

For info - we have been running biological samples in ammonium formate/acetate + MeCN / MeOH mobile phase.

Thanks all!.

James

Try forcing dilute nitric acid in the flow cell by manual glass syringe.

JM

If there is a possibility of having proteins, etc., in there you may want to use detergents, maybe with dithiothreitol, or urea (or other chaotiopes) first.

Thanks, I'll pass that on to our Cap-LC analyst

James

tayzyboy,

Did you try reversing the flow to the flow cell? This doesn't always work but often a partial blockage is effectively removed by simply reversing the low for a few minutes and then restoring flow to the normal flow direction.