Total carbon
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Total carbon (TC) is an analytical measurement for carbon content. This measurement is commonly found in environmental and pharmaceutical analysis.
Carbon types
A variety of different terms are used to identify the different types of carbon present at different levels of detail.
- Total carbon (TC) – all the carbon in the sample, including both inorganic and organic carbon
- Total inorganic carbon (TIC) – often referred to as inorganic carbon (IC), carbonate, bicarbonate, and dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2).
- Total organic carbon (TOC) – material derived from decaying vegetation, bacterial growth, and metabolic activities of living organisms or chemicals.
- Volatile organic compounds (VOC) – also referred to as purgeable organic carbon (POC); organic carbon that has been removed from a neutral, or acidified sample by purging with an inert gas. These are usually determined by purge and trap gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.
- Non-purgeable organic carbon (NPOC) – commonly referred to as TOC; organic carbon remaining in an acidified sample after purging the sample with gas.
- Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) – organic carbon remaining in a sample after filtering the sample, typically using a 0.45 micrometer filter.
- Suspended organic carbon – also called particulate organic carbon (POC); the carbon in particulate form that is too large to pass through a filter.
References
- ^ Schumacher, B. A. (2002). "Methods for the Determination of Total Organic Carbon (TOC) in Soils and Sediments" Ecological Risk Assessment Support Center. US. Environmental Protection Agency 23p.