Hello,

I apologize if this post is in the wrong section.

Currently, I am doing some research and looking for economically friendly chemicals that will achieve the same outcome as HCl for demineralization and NaOH for deproteinization.

Using the aforementioned chemicals for the process is an old art, and is unfortunately quite hazardous. I thought about using, perhaps, an organic acid such as acetic acid, but thought this may be too "weak" to achieve proper demineralization.

Any thoughts, ideas?

Thanks.

Edited May 29, 201411 yr by Phi for All
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It will depend on your application and the type of your sample. For trace analysis, for example use of strong acids is pretty much standard for a variety of reasons. However, if your sample is a liquid, the use of ion exchange and/or chelators can be an alternative. Same goes for deproteinization. If you want to remove it e.g. from body fluids, precipitation using a variety of techniques (TCA, acetone etc.) are often used.

The fundamental issue is that the samples are made of things that are similar to the things that make up the experimenter.

 

The materials that will demineralise or deproteinise the sample will do exactly the same to the person doing the experiment.

So the "aforementioned chemicals for the process is an old art, and is unfortunately quite hazardous." for a reason.