New Chromatography Columns and Accessories for 2016

Our annual review of new liquid chromatography (LC) columns and accessories introduced at Pittcon and throughout the previous year.

For many years, Ron Majors has been writing about the products released at Pittcon. Last year Michael Swartz began a new tradition whereby chromatography columns and accessories for the entire year were included in the report (1). This year, the tradition started by Michael continues. 

LCGC sent out a survey in early 2016 asking vendors to supply them with any products launched after Pittcon 2015. This article covers those products in the category of liquid chromatography (high performance liquid chromatography [HPLC] and ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography [UHPLC]) and related accessories. Other areas such as gas chromatography, instrumentation, and sample preparation are covered elsewhere (2,3). Because information for this article is obtained sporadically over the course of many months, it is very possible that some information has been missed. The reader is encouraged to check with specific vendors for additional products as well as more-detailed information regarding what is covered here.

The vendors that responded to the survey with HPLC and UHPLC columns and accessories are listed in Table I. The list contains very well-known vendors, such as Waters and Agilent Technologies, but also several lesser-known vendors. The product range is also highly varied from traditional reversed-phase columns using fully porous materials to specialty columns aimed at monoclonal antibody (mAb) analyses. With such a varied list, further discussion requires some breakdown of the different offerings. The initial sorting was accomplished based on differentiation between application toward small and large molecules. Within the general small-molecule category, three subcategories could be established: reversed-phase, hydrophilic-interaction chromatography (HILIC), and chiral offerings. Each of these is discussed separately below. For large-molecule products, subcategories involving reversed-phase, size-exclusion, ion-exchange, and affinity chromatography are identified and discussed later in this installment. Furthermore, there were several product launches for supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) that deserve some discussion. Lastly, several accessories relating to HPLC are noted.

Small Molecules