Chromatography Forum

Hi

Was thinking of just kind of do a survey on how every does their HPLC system Maintenance?? Any regular System Cleaning protocol followed in your lab??
Is there a routine procedure done before starting up the run each day???

thanks

No, we don't have any prescribed procedure for cleaning of the instrument except flushing analytical column. But on other hand I have to say that we have separated instruments for final products and intermediates. Sometimes we can see small peak in blank inject before analysis which is carry-over from previous analyte. In such case sonication of needle seat and needle in beaker with HPLC grade methanol helps.

we tend to run solvent blanks in between samples to remove the possibility of sample carry over (just as a precaution really).

Perhaps once a year we will disconnect the collumns and flush the system through with IPA, water and then 3M nitric acid. this gives the system and detector a good clean. then flush the system through with water (until the pH is back to normal) and IPA then your mobile phase.

We tend to do this when we get a consistant contaminant peak on our blank runs.

We use to clean/flush the HPLC systems every 6 months (or more frequently if there are problems due to contamination).
Firstly, we flush the system with hot water (HPLC grade) and then with IPA.
Flushing the system with IPA can be done during the night at low flow rates (0.2-0.3 mL/min).
Finally, we flush it with water.

Mostly, this is only time-fixed procedure, that we are repeating on every 6th month, but cleaning of the system/column after every analysis is common every-day procedure.

Recently, I have been told that 0.1% TFA in water is a good solution for cleaning the detector cell and tubings.

Best regards