The wide spectrum of columns available makes selecting this most important component of an LC system extremely difficult. Column choices span normal phase, reverse phase, size exclusion, ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and affinity chromatography. One is hard-pressed to find a more innovative, self-reflective instrument market.
Top 7 Questions You Should Ask When Buying a Chromatography Columns
- Based on your analyte(s), matrix, separation goals, and instrumentation, what column does the vendor recommend?
- What benefits does this column offer over your current column? Performance, lifetime, reproducibility, etc.
- How should you clean/prepare your sample prior to injection on the column?
- How do you care for the column? Conditioning, cleaning, storage, etc.
- What type of chromatographic media (fully porous, monolithic, core-shell) is going to provide the most benefit for your separation?
- Do you need a unique selectivity (HILIC, polar-end capped, etc.) to separate any very polar and/ or nonpolar components in your mixture?
- What column dimension is going to be most suitable for your loading requirement?
Separation modes used by survey respondents:
| Reversed phase | 58% |
| Normal phase | 46% |
| Ion chromatography | 38% |
| Ion exchange | 31% |
| Affinity | 17% |
| Hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) | 15% |
| Gel filtration (GFC) | 15% |
| Chiral | 14% |
| Gel permeation (GPC) | 13% |
| Ion exclusion | 2% |
| Other | 5% |
Column phases used by survey respondents:
| C18 | 62% |
| C18 (polar endcapped) | 37% |
| C8 | 27% |
| Biphenyl | 7% |
| Cyano | 22% |
| Phenyl | 18% |
| Silica | 32% |
| IBD | 1% |
| Amino | 13% |
| C4 | 7% |
| PFP | 8% |
| Cation exchange | 30% |
| Anion exchange | 40% |
Nearly 55% of respondents are engaged in purchasing new chromatography columns. The reasons for these purchases are as follows:
| Increase column life | 14% |
| Setting up a new lab / developing a brand new method | 13% |
| Trying to reduce operating costs | 12% |
| Working with more difficult samples that cause column clogging | 11% |
| Require higher quality data | 10% |
| Addition to existing systems, increase capacity | 9% |
| Reduce solvent usage and waste | 6% |
| We require more precise and accurate flow rates | 6% |
| Require shorter run times / increased lab throughput | 6% |
| Reduce sample prep steps and time | 5% |
| Require a special size of column | 3% |
| Other | 5% |
Top 10 features/factors respondents look for when purchasing chromatography columns
| Technical Performance | 74% |
| Ruggedness / Durability | 71% |
| Lot to Lot Reproducibility | 70% |
| Applications Support | 43% |
| Reputation of column manufacturer | 38% |
| Method Validation / Compliance Support | 38% |
| Initial Purchase Price of Column | 31% |
| Breadth of Column Offering | 22% |
| Available Applications Literature | 21% |
| Breadth of Other Consumables Offered | 13% |
For more information on chromatography columns, including useful articles and a list of manufacturers, visit www.labmanager.com/hplc-columns
