In this study the validity and suitability of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to determine the purity of selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and chloramphenicol has been investigated. The study materials were two candidate certified reference materials (CRMs), 6-methylchrysene and benzo[a]pyrene, and two different batches of commercially available highly pure chloramphenicol. The DSC results were compared with those obtained by other methods, namely gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection, liquid chromatography with diode array detection, and quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance. The purity results obtained by these different analytical methods confirm the well-known challenges of comparing results of different method-defined measurands. In comparison with other methods, DSC has a much narrower working range. This limits the applicability of DSC as purity determination method, for instance during the assignment of the purity value of a CRM. Nevertheless, this study showed that DSC can be a powerful technique to detect impurities that are structurally very similar to the main purity component. From this point of view, and because of its good repeatability, DSC can be considered as a valuable technique to investigate the homogeneity and stability of candidate purity CRMs. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.