AG Scientific is a leading supplier of high-quality reducing agents for all life science and research applications, including DTT and TCEP HCl. Here we discuss the basic differences between these two popular reducing agents.
TCEP HCl vs. DTT
| Product: | TCEP Hydrochloride | Dithiothreitol, DTT |
| Description: | TCEP HCl has the advantages of being odorless, more powerful, irreversible, more hydrophilic, and more resistant to oxidation in air. Near complete reduction of disulfide bonds. | DTT is a protective agent for reducing S-S TO SH groups. Used as a strong reducing agent for proteins and enzymes. |
| Alternative name/s: | Tris(2-Carboxyethyl) phosphine hydrochloride | Dithiothreitol or originally as Cleland's Reagent. |
| CAS: | 51805-45-9 | 3483-12-3 |
| Molecular Weight: | 286.6 Da | 154.25 Da |
| Molecular Formula: | C9H16O6PCl | C4H10O2S2 |
| Chemical Structure: |  |
 |
| Appearance | Odorless, white crystals | Slight sulfur smell, white crystalline powder |
| Solubility | 310 g/L | 50 g/L |
| Stability I: | Non-volatile. Effective at room temperature. | When refrigerated 2-8ºC, it is stable up to 3 years. |
| Stability II: | Stable at room temperature. Stable in aqueous, acidic & basic solutions. | We can ensure stability 72 hours without significant degradation or oxidation. |
| Degradation: | TCEP is not very stable in phosphate buffers, especially at neutral pH. Since TCEP is charged in solution, it is not compatible for use in isoelectric focusing. | Yes, when stressed at 30ºC, DTT demonstrates degradation starting after 3 days and increasing rapidly after 5 days. Sensitive to nickel. |
| Effective pH: | Effective at lower/wider pH. Effective pH range is 1.5 to 8.5. When dissolved in water resulting pH is ~2.5. | Yes, the reducing power is limited to pH values >7. Redox potential is -0.33 V at pH 7. |
| Packaging Requirements: | Package under inert gas, protect from moisture. | Package under inert gas, protect from moisture. |
| Removal Requirements: | TCEP removal is not required prior to most applications (e.g. histidine-tagged protein purification, maleimide conjugations). | DTT is removed by filtration (for the solid catalyst) or by chromatography (for the liquid form). |
| Applications: | Popular for Protein applications, SDS-PAGE, mass spectrometry applications, TCEP does not reduce metals used in immobilized metal affinity chromatography. TCEP is often used as a reducing agent to break disulfide bonds within and between proteins as a preparatory step for gel electrophoresis, histidine-tagged protein purification, maleimide conjugations. | DTT is as a reducing or “deprotecting” agent for thiolated DNA. Electrophoresis. |
Additional Reading
- Dithiothreitol (DTT) Applications You Must Know
- 20 DTT (Dithiothreitol) FAQs
- Dithiothreitol AKA Cleland’s Reagent
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