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, & affinity chromatography. One is hard-pressed to find a more innovative, selfreflective instrument market.
Top 7 Questions You Should Ask When Buying HPLC Columns
1. Based on your analyte(s), matrix, separation goals, and instrumentation, what column does the vendor recommend?
2. What benefits does this column offer over your current column? Performance, lifetime, reproducibility, etc.
3. How should you clean/prepare your sample prior to injection on the column?
4. How do you care for the column? Conditioning, cleaning, storage, etc.
5. What type of chromatographic media (fully porous, monolithic, core-shell) is going to provide the most benefit for your separation?
6. Do you need a unique selectivity (HILIC, polar-end capped, etc.) to separate any very polar and/ or nonpolar components in your mixture?
7. What column dimension is going to be most suitable for your loading requirement?
Top ten features/factors survey respondents look for when buying HPLC columns:
| Technical performance of HPLC columns (e.g. peak shape) | 97% |
| Ruggedness / durability of HPLC columns | 93% |
| Lot-to-lot reproducibility of HPLC columns | 88% |
| Initial purchase price of column | 80% |
| Reputation of column manufacturer | 71% |
| Specials and promotions | 66% |
| Applications support | 64% |
| Method validation / compliance support | 64% |
| Column discount program | 64% |
| Breadth of HPLC column offering (Selectivity) | 62% |
The HPLC separation modes being used by survey respondents:
| Reverse phase | 81% |
| Normal phase | 47% |
| Ion exchange | 37% |
| Hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) | 32% |
| Ion chromatography | 21% |
| Affinity | 20% |
| Chiral | 18% |
| Gel filtration (GFC) | 17% |
| Gel permeation (GPC) | 16% |
| Ion exclusion | 14% |
| Other | 2% |
The columns currently used in readers’ labs:
| Analytical HPLC Column | 89% |
| Prep HPLC Column | 26% |
| UHPLC Capillary Column | 20% |
| Fused-Core Column | 19% |
| Micro or Nano LC Column | 14% |
| Other | 5% |
The types of columns used in readers’ liquid chromatography work:
| Analytical scale (~4.6 mm dia) | 93% |
| Narrow-bore (1 to 2 mm dia) | 37% |
| Large ID (> 10 mm dia) | 23% |
| Capillary columns (< 0.3 mm dia) | 14% |
| Other | 3% |
The column phase(s) respondents are using:
| C18 | 75% |
| C8 | 46% |
| C18 (polar endcapped) | 45% |
| Silica | 41% |
| Phenyl | 38% |
| Anion exchange | 36% |
| Cation exchange | 31% |
| Cyano | 29% |
| Amino | 23% |
| C4 | 16% |
| Biphenyl | 14% |
| PFP | 13% |
| Other | 9% |
For more information on HPLC columns including useful articles and a list of manufacturers, visit www.labmanager.com/hplc-columns
