INTRODUCTION
What are purity grades?
Chemical purity grades are a standard used across the life sciences to ensure that reagents are properly tested and
qualified to be used in the research and manufacture of therapies. Purity grades are assigned to the raw materials
used to manufacture reagents so the purity grade of the final product will reflect the grade of its components.
Why are they important?
Using the appropriate chemical purity grade for your specific application can help ensure that
there won't be impurities in your reagents that could impact the accuracy of your results.
| Grade | Description | Suitability | Example applications | Example reagents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General grades | ||||
| ACS | Often regarded as a gold standard for meeting or exceeding the standards set by the American Chemical Society (ACS). Purity of equal to or greater than 95% is required. | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, and medical applications as well as general protocols requiring strict quality specifications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| Reagent | Often considered equivalent to ACS grade, although no standard specifications exist. | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, and medical applications as well as general protocols requiring strict quality specifications. Frequently, these are the solutions or dilutions of ACS grade reagents. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| USP | Meets or exceeds requirements set by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, medical, and general laboratory applications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| NF | Meets or exceeds requirements set by the National Formulary (NF). | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, medical, and general laboratory applications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| BP | Meets or exceeds requirements set by the British Pharmacopoeia (BP). | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, medical, and general laboratory applications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| JP | Meets or exceeds requirements set by the Japanese Pharmacopoeia (JP). | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, medical, and general laboratory applications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| EP | Meets or exceeds requirements set by the European Pharmacopoeia (PhEur, EP). | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, medical, and general laboratory applications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| Multi-compendial | Meets or exceeds requirements set by more than one pharmacopeia. | Reagents are suitable for food, drug, medical, and general laboratory applications. | Bacterial and viral culture | Media, buffers, and solutions |
| Specialty grades | ||||
| Molecular Biology | Specifically manufactured for molecular biology applications. Tested for contaminants including DNase, RNase, and protease activity as well as bacterial contamination. | Suitable for molecular biology laboratory applications. | Viral vector and plasmid production and purification. | Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lysis buffers, buffers and poloxamers, glucose solutions, water for molecular biology, water for injection (WFI) quality water. |
| HPLC | Specifically manufactured for the majority of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) grade separations. Extremely high purity (generally >99.9%) solvents, buffer salts, and mobile phase modifiers. | Suitable for HPLC, gel-permeation, chromatography, and UV-spectrophotometric analysis. | Monitoring capsid assemblies and product/reagent impurities. | MES, sodium acetate, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, and Tris buffers. |
Note: ACS, Reagent, and USP-NF grades are typically equivalent but please review requirements to ensure the grade is appropriate for your application.
The purity grade for each raw material used in your product will be listed on the certificate of origin. You can request a certificate of origin when you place your order.
No. Purity grades can be product-specific and should meet the requirements of your specific application. A higher grade won't necessarily be the best choice for what you are working on.
Some raw materials are so specialized they aren’t graded. If this is the case our team can design and perform a quality testing program to ensure it meets your required specifications.
Over the past 27 years, we have established a default library of raw materials that we have tested extensively for performance and quality. We can also help source and test specialized raw materials to meet your needs.
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