Chapter 8 - Analytical HPLC columns and their characteristics

Abstract

In HPLC, the separation media is usually contained in a chromatographic column. The chromatographic column is made from a tube (cylinder) filled with the stationary phase. A common stationary phase is made from a porous material in the form of particles on which an active phase is bonded or coated (Neue, 1997). Various physical dimensions of the tube containing the stationary phase are available, and the stationary phase can be of a number of types. The number of types of commercially available columns is very large (about 63,000) and various lists of vendors and brands of columns can be found on the web. For nano-, capillary-, and microflow UHPLC, either very narrow columns or special capillaries are used to contain the stationary phase (Bell, 2019; Roberg-Larsen et al., 2021). Other separation devices are available such as cartridges and microfluidic chips that contain the stationary phase (Bao et al., 2021).