chiral column

[amitavaghosh]

can anybody tell why we are keeping chiral column in refrigerator, what is the bonded phase and what is the packing material and bonding in the stationary phase and how are they differ from normal reverse phase column.

[Bruce Hamilton]

It's warm in Hydrabad? . Lovely City!.

Seriously, until you tell us the brand and type, we'll only be guessing.
Does the manufacturer recommend fridge storage?.

I suspect that the column is a polymeric or cellulose-derived column. Some early polymer gel columns were quite unstable, and fridge storage was recommended.

It's possible that it's used in an aqueous mobile phase, and the low temperature slows down growth of unwanted wildlife.

New ion-exchange cartridges for water purification systems ( such as Milli-Q ), are often put in cold storage - because it slows down any degradation before use, allowing storage for years.

I can't see any harm, and if it works, why not keep doing it?. Others might have better reasons.

Please keep having fun,

Bruce Hamilton

[mbreslav]

I assume that some chiral columns, particularly made with proteins/peptides are more sensitive to bio-degradation in water buffer media than others. For example, I remember being recommended to keep Chinincarbamat/Chinidincarbamat columns in refrigerator. By the way, what is interesting about these columns: they can not be capped. Thus to ensure reasonable quantitative results with mixtures containing predominantly one of two enantiomers, it is better to load more material in order to "saturate base line" (my opinion).