Brands and Grades

Description of Sigma Product Grades
Table Comparing Sigma and Competitor Product Grades
Links to Product Selection Guides on our Website

We will often have large number of different products available for particular chemical. These can be different brands e.g. made by Sigma, Aldrich or FLUKA, or different grades, suitable or perhaps specifically tested for differerent applications.

Please see the table below indicating the different grades that may be available and their intended area of use, along with the suggested equivalent VWR or Fisher grade.

Commonly Known as	Sigma-Aldrich Grade	VWR Grade	Fisher Grade
Technical	Techn	Technical	Technical
General Purpose Reagent	Purum > 95.0%	GPR	SLR/Certified
	Puriss > 98.5%
Analytical Reagent	Purum p.a.	Analar	AR
	Puriss p.a.
	Puriss p.a. plus
Chemistry Applications	ACS
	SigmaUltra
	ReagentPlus
	Anhydrous
Life Science Applications	BioChemika*	Molecular Biology	Biotechnology
	* for Molecular Biology (MB)
	* for Microbiology
	* for Microscopy
	* for Electrophoresis
	* for Fluorescence
	Cell Culture Grade*
	* tested for compatibility with growth of cells in culture
	Biotech*
	* for Peptide synthesis
	* for oligonucleotide synthesis
	* for Protein sequencing
	* for Electrophoresis
	Biochemika Ultra
	Biochemika Ultra for MB*
	* tested for DNAse, RNAse,
	Protease and Phosphatase
Pharmaceutical Applications	BP (British Pharmacopoeia)
	USP (US Pharmacopoeia)
	Ph.Eur (European Pharmacopoeia)
	* for clinical research
Chromatography Reagents	CHROMOSOLV	HiPersolv	HPLC
	* for HPLC		GC
	* for GC
Spectrometry Reagents	SPECTRANAL	Spectrosol	Spectranalysed
	AAS Spectroscopy
	* for UV
	* for IR
Traces Analysis Reagents	TraceSelect (below 0.5 ppb)	Aristar	Primar
	TraceSelect Ultra (below 1 ppt)
Volumetric Solutions	Fixanal	Convol	Nomafona
Residue Analysis Reagents	PESTANAL	For Residue Analysis	Distol
	OEKANAL
Karl Fisher Reagents	HYDRANAL
Specials	Chiraselect: Reagents for derivatisation of Chiral Molecules
	Selectophore: Special ion-selective Molecules & aids for Electrode Production
	Certified Reference Materials: For use as Primary or Secondary Reference Standards

Links to Product Selection Guides Shown on Our Website
Please find below links to other parts of the Sigma-Aldrich website which give advice on choosing the grade of product appropriate for different applications.

Solvent Application Portal: This is a set of tables recommending the grade of solvent appropriate for use in analytical, chemistry, environmental and biochemical applications

Descriptions of the grades relevant to solvents, available from Sigma-aldrich are shown in this link.

Adsorbent selection guide

Agarose selection guide

Albumin selection guide

Antibiotic selection guide

Buffer reference centre

Cell lysis reference and selection guide

Detergent selection guide

GC column selection guide

His Select reference and selection guide

Life science product guides

Protease inhibitor cocktail selection guide

Syringe selection guide

Vial closure and septa selection guide