The presence of algae in HPLC systems can cause many problems that may be incorrectly diagnosed as instrument or application problems. Algae grow in aqueous media, preferably in a pH range from 4 to 8. Their growth is accelerated by buffers, for example phosphate or acetate. Since algae grow through photosynthesis, light will also stimulate their growth. Even in distilled water small-sized algae grow after some time.
Algae deposit and grow everywhere within the HPLC system, causing the following problems:
Blocked solvent filters, or deposits on inlet or outlet valves, resulting in unstable flow, composition or gradient problems, or a complete failure of the pump.
Plugging of small-pore, high-pressure solvent filters, usually placed before the injector, resulting in high system pressure.
Blockage of PTFE frits, leading to increased system pressure.
Plugging of column filters, giving high system pressure.
Dirty flow cell windows of detectors, resulting in higher noise levels (since the detector is the last module in the flow path, this problem is less common).
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