C18 Columns Expand Methods Development Toolbox

By Derek Jensen, Hamilton Company, and Carol Preisig and Annette Summers, Consultants, GeneCom Group

The flexibility to perform separations without pH, temperature or mobile phase restrictions arms chromatographers with powerful tools for tackling tough separations.

In the chemical science laboratory, the liquid chromatograph is the third most commonly encountered analytical instrument, surpassed only by the pH meter and analytical balance. HPLC finds extensive use in environmental, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, clinical and toxicological industries. Although HPLC has unprecedented potential to accomplish separations of vastly different chemical mixtures, a method must first be developed on a near case-by-case basis. Oftentimes this process is less than straightforward and eventually becomes a bottleneck, hampering downstream productivity. To address this holdup, laboratories have recently begun manufacturing columns with improved mechanical, thermal and pH stability, effectively expanding the analytical chemists’ methods development repertoire.

© Laboratory Equipment Magazine