Ion-exchange Reverse Osmosis Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Monitoring Analytics

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Abstract

Total organic carbon (TOC) is by far the most widely used parameter for monitoring the level of contamination by organic species in pure and high-purity water. However, it is non-specific and cannot be directly related to the concentrations of organic molecules present due to the different amounts of carbon in different molecules (1). In general, TOC is best used to monitor real-time changes in water purity and to trend contamination (1). The identities of the organic compounds contributing to the TOC are usually not established. Huber (2) has sub-divided TOC into types such as natural organic matter or hydrophobic organic carbon. However, this interesting approach is not widely used. An equipment suppliera has manufactured a wide range of laboratory water purification systems for many years, and the water produced by the different systems have been characterized by a variety of tests within that companyﾒs central R&D laboratory, and in independent external test laboratories. Internally, TOC and resistivity are used to routinely monitor water purity. Meanwhile, more compound- or element-specific techniques, such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometryﾠ (ICP-MS), ion chromatography (IC), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (all in-house), or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) are used to investigate particular issues or applications or to provide product performance data. Information is, therefore, available on purified waters produced by different combinations of purification technologies and alternative system designs. This article reviews some aspects of the data relating to organic contamination.

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