Material Grades Explained

Understanding chemical grades is crucial for ensuring purity and quality in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and research.

Chemical Grade Fundamentals

At the core of understanding chemical grades lies the notion of purity. But it's not just about how clean a chemical is; it's also about meeting specific standards tailored for different applications. For instance, a chemical destined for pharmaceutical use must adhere to different purity criteria compared to one used in educational labs.

These standards are established by organizations like the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), which publish monographs detailing the specifications for various chemicals. These monographs ensure consistency and quality across manufacturing processes and applications.

Reagent Grade

Similar to ACS grade, suitable for analytical work and general lab use. Appears when ACS standards are not available.

ACS Grade

The laboratory gold standard, meeting or exceeding ACS (American Chemical Society) standards. Ideal for general analytical and laboratory use.

SEMI Grade

Similar to ACS grade, suitable for analytical work and general lab use. Appears when ACS standards are not available. Meets or exceeds the monographs established by SEMI, ensuring suitability for electronics design and manufacturing.

FCC Grade

Meets or exceeds standards set by the Food Chemical Codex (FCC), ensuring suitability for food, beverage, and nutritional supplement purposes.

USP Grade

Meets or exceeds standards set by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), ensuring suitability for pharmaceutical purposes.

NF Grade

Meets National Formulary (NF) standards, commonly used in pharmaceuticals and educational settings.

Laboratory Grade

Offers high purity but with unknown impurities, making it suitable for educational labs.

Technical Grade

Good for industrial use but not for high-purity applications like pharmaceuticals.
material grades explaination

HPLC

Specially purified to be suitable for High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Meets applicable Liquid Chromatography specifications established by the ACS.

Glass Distilled

Purified, dried, and distilled in glass. Suitable for high resolution gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy, trace organic analysis, and critical and routine HPLC. Meets all other ACS specifications for general use reagent, spectrophotometric analysis, and general use HPLC.

ICP

Precise, elemental standards suitable for inductively coupled plasma analysis.

LC-MS

Suitable for liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry applications. Meets applicable Liquid Chromatography specifications established by the ACS.

Absolv

Specially distilled to purity levels exceeding the requirements for HPLC, TLC, GC, and pesticide residue analysis. Also covers LC/MS applications for Acetonitrile and Methanol.

Spectro

Solvents purified for standard chromatography requirements in HPLC and spectrophotometry procedures. Meets applicable Liquid Chromatography and Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry specifications established by the ACS.

High Purity Extraction Grade

Formulated for cannabis extraction applications.