You can’t go wrong with the high-purity solvents from the traditional brand PromochemⓇ! The products manufactured in Germany have deservedly earned an excellent reputation over the past 40 years. In addition to solvents in Optigrade® quality for HPLC and Picograde® quality for residue analysis, PromochemⓇ also offers high-purity acids for trace analysis as well as highly specialized solvents for other analytical methods.

With its long history and the reputation of an excellent range of solvents, PromochemⓇ is a German brand of great significance. Since its foundation in 1980, PromochemⓇ has established itself as a synonym for quality, with its production site in Wesel, Germany.

A significant milestone is now approaching: neoFroxx will distribute PromochemⓇ globally, taking the partnership between the two companies to a new level. As part of our expanded range, PromochemⓇ will appear as a neoFroxx brand. This strong partnership allows us to offer our customers high-quality solvents and acids. We are thrilled about the opportunities that arise from this partnership and eagerly anticipate a promising future together.

Picograde® for residue analysis

Picograde® quality solvents are at the top of Promochem’s solvent range. Each batch undergoes rigorous testing to meet the demanding requirements of organic trace analysis at all times. Environmental, residue and pesticide analysis is now expected to detect even trace amounts of an increasingly wide range of organic environmental contaminants such as pesticides, PAHs, PCBs, PCDD/PCDFs, etc. with the highest possible accuracy. Consequently, even the slightest impurities in the solvent can affect the precision of the analytical results. The Picograde® type solvents are specifically tailored to this application.

Carefully selected raw materials are chemically pretreated and then fractionated in glass under exclusion of air. Distillation and bottling also takes place under exclusion of air. The glass bottles are sterile and dust-free and are rinsed with the appropriate solvent before filling. The caps used to close the bottles are subjected to the same rigorous cleaning procedures. Solvent specification includes determination of water content, residue on evaporation and comprehensive gas chromatographic analysis.

To confirm the absence of impurities, samples of the solvent are concentrated to varying degrees and then analyzed by gas chromatography. Flame ionization and electron capture detectors (ECD) are used to quantify the impurities. The Picograde® solvent specification guarantees that no signal due to impurities is greater than the peak of the internal standard (10 pg/ml heptachlor epoxide) in the retention time window from 1,4-dichlorobenzene to decachlorobiphenyl. These stringent specification requirements make it possible for Picograde® solvents to be used for trace amounts of organic contaminants down to ppb and ppt levels.

Optigrade® - for HPLC

Today, high-performance liquid chromatography is an indispensable analytical tool, especially in the fields of research and development, pharmaceutical quality control and analysis in the food and environmental sectors. The technology requires solvents of the highest quality to enable reproducible separations. The basic requirements include

  • high UV transmittance
  • low particle content
  • low acidity and alkalinity
  • low water content
  • low content of other non-volatile components
  • consistent quality (batch to batch – continuity)

The Promochem® HPLC range includes solvents for isocratic analytical HPLC, as well as gradient-grade solvents. Gradient grade has the highest purity and is specifically designed for gradient elution HPLC using reversed phase materials and UV or fluorescence detection. Thanks to quality assurance procedures, the quality of Optigrade® solvents is consistently high. Each batch is tested to ensure that the solvent has the required high UV transmittance in the wavelength range of 190-350 nm.
Suitable ion pair reagents are available from Promochem® for HPLC gradient elution.

Solvents for LC-MS

The presence of alkali and alkaline earth metals in the mobile phase can greatly complicate the interpretation of the mass spectrum in LC-MS. Therefore, Promochem® solvents for LC-MS have been developed with extremely low levels of these metals, with a maximum of 0.1 ppm.

Solvents for Ultra-HPLC

The requirements for UHPLC solvents are high. Therefore, a new series of high-purity Optigrade® UHPLC solvents was developed to achieve the highest possible resolution and sensitivity. These UHPLC solvents combine the most stringent specification limits for UV transmittance, gradient shift, peak impurities and ionic background for MS detection. All UHPLC solvents are microfiltered at 0.1 µm, have a post-evaporation residue of 1 ppm or less, and are packaged under inert gas to improve shelf life. Also available from Promochem® are selected buffers for mobile phase preparation and various mixtures of water and acetonitrile with formic acid, acetic acid and trifluoroacetic acid. And of course the quality is perfect as well!

High-purity solvents for special analytic applications

It is becoming increasingly important to be able to determine a range of organic compounds in environmental samples, including VOCs (volatile organic compounds), LCFCs (volatile halogenated hydrocarbons), EOXs (extractable organic-bound halogens) and BTEX aromatics (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and the xylenes). Various extraction techniques are used for the separation and concentration of trace organic components from the sample matrix, and it is essential to use high-purity solvents without corresponding impurities. Promochem® solvents meet these high requirements.

The analysis of volatile organic impurities using GC headspace technology has become an important quality control tool in the pharmaceutical and food-related industries. The International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) has issued recommendations on the safe levels of solvent residues in pharmaceutical preparations. These solvents are divided into 3 classes according to their toxicity. The limits for solvent residues in pharmaceutical products are specified in the pharmacopoeias of the United States and Europe. The solvent must be of the highest purity and show virtually no background signal with both polar or non-polar GC capillary columns. The new headspace solvents are high boiling point solvents specifically designed, analyzed and packaged for headspace analysis of volatile solvent contaminants.

When extracting trace amounts of nitrosamines in samples, it is important to use a solvent that is free of nitrosamine contamination. For this application Promochem® offers solvents with a maximum content of 0.1ppb of specific nitrosamines.

A selection of solvent mixtures adapted to the requirements of the tobacco industry can also be found in the PromochemⓇ range.

High-purity acids for trace analysis

PromochemⓇ offers the most commonly used mineral acids for trace analysis: Hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, perchloric acid and acetic acid. They are produced by sub-boiling distillation from very pure starting materials. This purification results in most metallic impurities being reduced to the ppb range (or below). The acids are supplied in special bottles (long-term leached borosilicate glass or modified HDPE), which ensure minimal contamination of the acid by the material of the bottle.

Important note: Element concentrations refer to the time of filling. The concentrations of some elements may increase due to the storage container.