TechNotes

Q. What is the best way to clean LC/MS glassware?
A. We have published a whitepaper on the formal LC/MS glassware cleaning procedure. Contact us at cleaning@alconox.com for a copy.

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Q. We use grocery store detergents to clean our labware and it recently came to my attention that we may need to switch to a laboratory grade detergent such as Alconox or Liquinox. Why is that necessary?

A. Here are some insights as to why a grocery store detergent is not suitable for use in a lab…

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Q. We have been using your Detojet detergent in our lab dishwasher all year long. However, recently, we have been having issues with our dishware not getting clean. Have there been any changes made to the Detojet formula? Any ideas why this is occurring? A. Detojet® Low Foaming Liquid Detergent has not had any formation or formulation changes, so we can remove that out of the equation in solving for the source of your new problem. There are, however, many other aspects to consider….

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Q. It appears that the Solujet is leaving a ring on some of the labware that cannot be removed. What is this ring (sodium silicate?)? How do we remove it? The labware has not been completely submerged. We have just added the Solujet soak for some labware that may have stubborn organics. We have been giving the labware a 4 hour soak in 1% Solujet, followed by warm tap water rinse then wash with Liquinox followed by 3x DI rinse.

Click for the Answer.

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My question is related to a minimum detergent concentration.  We manually wash labware of all sizes in 0.3% Liquinox solution. We also pre-wash or pre-rinse the labware and control our parts load.  We rarely have failures. We want to change our protocol to extend the wash water use for one day instead of based on a numerical parts load.  Do you think a 0.3% Liquinox concentration is sufficient detergent capacity to go an entire day?

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Alcotabs® Tablet Pipet Detergent is a tablet that is designed to effervesce and give time release flotation and detergent cleaning in a siphon pipet washer. Alcotabs detergent dissolve to a pH near 7, starting out acidic and the pH rises as the effervescence slows down and eventually stops. The tablets contain anionic surfactants, phosphates, carbonates and organic acids.

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Adding bleach to Alconox and Liquinox detergents can be done to enhance the disinfecting and oxidizing properties of these cleaners. Adding oxidizing does bring one more cleaning mechanism to the cleaning process which can be helpful if you are trying to clean dyes, pigments, heavy burned on organic residues and other residues that are labile to oxidation. You can get some disinfection, but as we will explain, you need to clean a surface first before you disinfect.

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Q. Can I use pH paper to confirm cleaning and rinsing of labware to comply with lab accreditation requirements?

A. If you are going to use pH strips to comply with lab accreditation requirements, you need to verify that your detergents are not interfering with the strips and papers. Detergents and surface active agents can interfere with some pH paper by causing a decrease of several pH units in reading. Please test any pH paper you intend to use …

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Q. I am developing a new cleaning process to replace the process we are using for cleaning glass slides before applying Silane coating. We are using strong acid to clean glass slides. I want to use a process where I first use basic aqueous solution, then use DI water to rinse, followed by acidic solution to chelate away metal ions. Then we’ll do DI water rinse, air dry, and finally use oxygen plasma to final clean the glass slide. What acidic aqueous solution and basic aqueous solution can you suggest?

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Q. We are attempting to validate our glassware washing process and found trace contaminants of phenol remaining after the washing process. Is there another detergent that is able to remove phenol better then Liquinox®?

A. In general, for manual cleaning, Liquinox® should be an excellent choice for removal of phenol residues. For very low level trace analysis, additional rinsing may be required. For routine laboratory cleaning, a triple rinse is typically used. For trace analysis, a 6 time rinse with purified water is typically used. For extreme low level trace analysis . . .

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