G E-News  Contact  Global 0 Webshop COUNTRY  Search 

HOME COMPANY PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES LITERATURE SERVICES & SUPPORT NEWS / EVENTS

Home Products Total Organic Carbon Analysis What is "TOC"?

 Product Information I Quotation  Technical Inquiry  Other Inquiry

What is "TOC"?
 TOC Basic Introduction

Total organic carbon (TOC) indicates the total amount of carbon from organic material present in a sample. The advantages of TOC analysis are
the fast analysis time of a few minutes, the exact and matrix-independent quantification and the very low consumption of chemicals. Since this is
a sum parameter, the method is not suitable for identifying individual organic components. TOC is mostly determined in liquids where it serves
as a representative index for water quality but can also be measured in solids.

Due to the sheer number of known organic compounds, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and permanganate
consumption tests have been used in the past as indices for the collective measurement of all organic substances, regardless of their nature.
Carbon Species and Determination Methods

The total amount of all carbon present in a sample is referred to as “total carbon” (TC). It can be
further distinguished into two major groups, total organic carbon (TOC) and total inorganic
carbon (TIC). Total organic carbon can be further classified as either non-purgeable organic
carbon (NPOC) or purgeable organic carbon (POC).

With regard to the solubility of organic substances in water, a distinction can be made between
dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which are substances that pass through a filter with a pore size
of 0.45µm, and particulate organic carbon.

Two main TOC determination methods are used:

Difference method: TOC is determined by subtracting results for TC and IC (TOC = TC - IC).
Direct method: TOC is determined by measuring NPOC, in other words TC after IC removal (TOC = NPOC).
Measuring IC

For TOC measurement, IC refers to the total sum of inorganic carbon contained (where CO 2 indicates dissolved carbon dioxide,
HCO 3 - bicarbonate ions, and CO 3 2- carbonate ions). The quantity of dissolved carbon dioxide, bicarbonate ions, and carbonate ions in water are
kept in an equilibrium that depends on the pH level of the water, according to the expression below.

With decreasing pH, the equilibrium moves to the left side of the diagram above. At a pH of 3 or lower, almost all IC becomes dissolved carbon
dioxide, which is easy to strip from water.
Based on that principle, IC is measured by acidifying the sample to pH <3 and then measuring the CO 2 extracted from the sample by stripping
with CO 2 -free air.

Using Direct and Difference Methods

Both the Difference Method (TC-IC) and the Direct Method (TOC = NPOC) are used to measure TOC. However, the optimal method must be
selected based on sample characteristics.
The difference method requires two separate analyses and is therefore subject to a larger measurement error than the direct method due to error
propagation. As a guideline, the TOC content of the sample must also be greater than the TIC content, otherwise the measurement uncertainty
becomes unacceptable for the purpose of the analysis.
For samples that are prone to foaming, or that have significant volatile contents, for example, the TC-IC method is used because the NPOC
method can result in loss of purgeable organic carbon (POC) from samples during the stripping step, or in general due to foaming ingredients.

TOC Oxidation methods

TOC analyzers are, in general terms, CO 2 gas analyzers with an upstream oxidation stage and sample preparation system. Regardless of which
TOC determination method is used, TOC (also TC) is measured by the oxidation of organic carbon and subsequent quantification of the resulting
CO 2 using an infrared detector. There are different oxidation methods for conversion to CO 2 , of which two have become established; combustion
oxidation and wet oxidation.

Combustion oxidation method

The sample is injected into a high-temperature (650 to 1,200 °C) combustion furnace to incinerate all organic carbon in the sample and measure
it as fully oxidized carbon dioxide. Due to the simplicity of using heat/combustion as the principle for oxidation, the method requires no reagents
for pretreatment or posttreatment processes. One of the main features of this method is its ability to efficiently oxidize organic carbon matter that
is otherwise resistant to decomposition, such as particulate matter or macromolecular organic substances. In the past, high temperatures
(1000°C and more) were required because the first TOC instruments used peak height for integration. There, the conversion to CO 2 had to be
extremely fast so that the signal was recorded as sharp as possible to achieve the best possible resolution.
Very high combustion temperatures lead to the formation of salt melts in the analyzer, which in turn cause increased maintenance due to
deactivation of the catalyst, corrosion of the combustion tube and the detector cell. Salt interference on the detector cell from the molten salt
products can affect the quality and accuracy of the data. In addition, maintenance time is extended due to the longer cooling and reheating time
required because of the higher combustion temperature.
Shimadzu has developed the high-temperature catalytic oxidation (HTCO) at 680°C. While the platinum catalyst ensures complete conversion of
all carbon components, the combustion temperature is below the melting points of common salts. Thus, problems caused by salt are minimized
while excellent recovery rates are achieved for all organic components. TOC combustion oxidation can easily be expanded to include the
determination of an additional sum parameter for nitrogen, Total bound Nitrogen (TNb).
Wet Oxidation method

With this method, an oxidizing agent is added to samples to chemically decompose carbon in organic matter for measurement as carbon dioxide.
Though heat (up to 100 °C) or ultraviolet irradiation can be applied to promote the oxidation reaction, the ability of the chemical reaction to
oxidatively decompose matter is weaker than combustive oxidation, which tends to result in lower carbon recovery rates from suspended or other
particulate organic matter, or persistent substances. It does however allow the injection of comparably larger amounts of sample to reach lower
limits of detection.

Due to its superior oxidative reaction, the combustion oxidation method is commonly used to measure TOC levels in environmental water, factory
effluent, and similar samples, where water samples often contain large amounts of insoluble organic carbon.

Back to TOC Product Lineup

Products
 - Optical Devices - Liquid Chromatograph-Mass - Total Organic Carbon Analysis
Spectrometry
- Columns and Consumables - Materials Testing & Inspection
- Mass Spectrometry
- Gas Chromatography - Particle Size Analysis
- Molecular Spectroscopy
- Liquid Chromatography - Software & Informatics
- Elemental Analysis
- Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometry - Balances
- Life Science Lab Instruments

 FOLLOW US:

| IMPRINT | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF USE | CAREER | SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY |