Title: total organic carbon
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - total organic carbon
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.15099
Status: current

Definition
Organic matter content of soil, sediment, or water determined by measurement of organic carbon as the ratio of mass of organic carbon/mass of solid or of water.

Notes
1) TOC is determined by oxidation of the organic matter into carbon dioxide (\(\ce{CO2}\)) after removal of inorganic carbon such as carbonate or hydrogencarbonate. TOC includes all the carbon atoms covalently bonded in organic molecules.
2) Most of the organic carbon in water is dissolved organic carbon (DOC), with the remainder referred to as particulate organic carbon. In natural waters, TOC is composed primarily of nonspecific humic materials.

Related Terms
- dissolved organic carbon: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14595
- humic materials: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/14746
- soil: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/15036

Source
- PAC, 2009, 81, 829. 'Glossary of terms used in ecotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2009)' on page 956 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-08-07-09)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15099/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15099/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/15099/xml

Citation: Citation: 'total organic carbon' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.15099
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-20T04:54:29+00:00