What is the recommened procedure to clean the UV detector cell?

I'm sure somone will post about Nitric acid or you could search on Google.

I recommend just contacting the vendor and purchasing a rebuild kit, or you could try disassembly and manual cleaning of the lenses.

Dear Joao;

In the lab where I used to work it was common to have problems with dirt accumulating in the UV cell. My recommendation would be to first try wahing it with something less drastic than 2% HNO3. I suggest you first try, MEOH or ACN, and then 1% TFA placing the cell in the liquid and using an ultrasonic bath. If that does not work, then the 2% HNO3 treatment would be the last resort.

Godd Luck

Benjamin

Isn'it possible to flush the cell with the above mentionned solvent, using the LC system, without column?

Yes you can do that but do not use nitric acid flushing by pump . The acid flushing can be done with mannual syrinse . The best way to do the cleaning of flow cell is open the flow cell and clean the lenses by IPA. Pls be careful not to use any tissue paper etc to clean. Only sonicate the parts in IPA and let it dry on its own.

An additional tip -- please check the users manual for your instrument for info on what to clean your flow cell with, and how to do it.

The flow cell may be able to handle any common HPLC solvent, but immersing the body of the flow cell in a solvent in a sonicator may damage the external parts usually protected against solvent by a gasket.

The Waters 996 PDA manual, as an example, specifically says that a flow cell may be disassembled, the lenses swabbed with ethanol, and reassembled with a new belleville washer (a type of circular spring) and new gasket. Note that these are consumable parts according to Waters.

It specifically says the outer body is not compatible with ethanol, though I'm sure you could use it as an eluent.