HPLC Columns – Water Wettable Phases

Column selection is possibly one of the most important steps in HPLC method development. The chemistry of both the analytes and stationary phase need to be considered as well as any requirements of the detection process (e.g. ionization state for LC-MS).

Due to the nature of the analyte and detection method some HPLC protocols face challenges, such as the requirement for a highly aqueous mobile phase which is not compatible with traditional silica based reversed phase HPLC columns. These sorts of challenging requirements can be overcome by considering some of the physical properties of the column packing material, for example, ligand density on the silica surface or the applicability of polymer versus silica packing materials.

In this short video, we will look at columns which are designed for use with highly aqueous mobile phases.