Total carbon

Part of a series on the
Carbon cycle
By regions
Carbon dioxide
Forms of carbon
  • Total carbon (TC)
  • Total organic carbon (TOC)
  • Total inorganic carbon (TIC)
  • Dissolved organic carbon (DOC)
  • Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC)
  • Particulate organic carbon (POC)
  • Particulate inorganic carbon (PIC)
  •  Category
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Total carbon (TC) is an analytical parameter representing the concentration of carbon in a sample. TC includes carbon in any form, whether organic or inorganic, volatile or fixed, dissolved or suspended. In many application areas, rather than TC, a parameter representing of subset of TC is measured; examples include Total organic carbon (TOC), Particulate inorganic carbon (PIC), and Dissolved organic carbon (DOC).