Chromatography Forum

Hello everyone,

So I have a failure with my holmium oxide filter test...I called Dionex and they said to clean the filter they want 12K!!! Is this a simple fix? I am going to take it apart and clean it myself? What are your thoughts? I have plenty of experience tearing apart HPLCs, but not to much optical experience...

Any assistance will be extremely helpful!

Tim

Hello Morris,
I have a good tip for you, you try it first and in the next step open your flow cell because of Opening flow cell is too complicated and hard.
A warm-water flush using the 60 °C setting on your column compartment is an effective way to clean your
UV flow cell.
It working good probably, On the other hand for control wavelength Accuracy check this path:
edqm: ANNEX 1: Qualification of HPLC Equipment
You can easily prepare a Anthracene solution and Qualify your UV detector, I think it is better than opening your flow cell, I have had a bad memory of it. good luck my friend .

I think , holmium oxide filter problem is a different story than the flow cell cleaning
Actually , wavelenght accuracy test is done using the reference beam , so flow cell has no effect.

Some manufacturers of HPLC detectors and spectrophotometers use a holmium oxide filter , inserted in the light path by a magnetic drive , in order to check the wavelenght accuracy of the device.

If the filter becomes very dirty , the wavelenght accuracy test may fail.

You may clean it by yourself using a soft and lint free tissue , if you can disassemble the unit.

These filters mostly located in front of the deuterium lamp where light enters to monochromator housing.

Hi Tim,

What is the actual error message you are seeing? Was anything changed recently (flow cell, lamp)? How old is your lamp?

Here are some recommendations:

• Remove the flow cell and check the optical path to make sure there is no obvious contamination or obstruction.
• If the lamp was recently replaced, confirm that it was installed properly (maybe try a different lamp if available).
• Install the dummy flow cell and run the wavelength calibration test.

I would advise against trying to clean any of the internal optics on your own; leave this to a trained service rep.