Top 7 Questions You Should Ask When Buying HPLC 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?
HPLC column sizes used by survey respondents
| Large ID (> 10 mm dia) | 4% |
| Analytical scale (~4.6 mm dia) | 66% |
| Narrow-bore (1 to 2 mm dia) | 21% |
| Capillary columns (< 0.3 mm dia) | 9% |
According to survey respondents, performance verification tests for wavelength accuracy, stray light, resolution etc. are performed…
| Reversed phase | 24% |
| Normal phase | 19% |
| Ion exchange | 12% |
| Ion chromatography | 9% |
| Hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) | 9% |
| Gel permeation (GPC) | 6% |
| Gel filtration (GFC) | 6% |
| Chiral | 4% |
| Ion exclusion | 4% |
| Affinity | 4% |
Reported HPLC column usage by survey respondents
 | 0 - 1 per month |  |
 | 2-5 per month |
 | 6-10 per month |
 | 10-50 per month |
 | 50+ per month |
 | Don’t know |
Top 10 features/factors respondents look for when purchasing HPLC columns.
| Technical performance of HPLC columns (e.g. peak shape) | 93% |
| Ruggedness / Durability of HPLC columns | 90% |
| Lot-to-lot reproducibility of HPLC columns | 83% |
| Initial purchase price of column | 70% |
| Reputation of column manufacturer | 70% |
| Applications support | 65% |
| Column discount program | 61% |
| Breadth of HPLC column offering (selectivity) | 58% |
| Method validation / compliance support | 57% |
| Specials and promotions | 55% |
For more information on HPLC columns, including useful articles and a list of manufacturers, visit www.labmanager.com/hplc-columns
See the most recent survey results here
