Chromatography Forum

Hello,

I washed my Hplc C18 column with water for 40 min in order to get rid off the acids contamination and now I have 2 mins delay to all of my RT. How can l equilibrate my system after that? Is there a possibility to have destroyed my column?


Thank you

Barbara

Washing a C-18 column with water not destroy the column , according to my experience , but a phase collapse may occur.
That means , it requires much more time to re-equalibrate the column.

Washing with a strong solvent , such as pure methanol or acetonitrile , restores the column.

If you have 2 minutes delay for all of your peaks , there may be a pump ( flow ) problem ,please check your pump performance , by collecting the column out to a graduated cylinder against time.

I had a C-8 column that would have almost no retention after sitting with 100% water, but if I washed it with 100% methanol and let it set overnight it would then be as good as new.

Hi James ,

If you store your C-8 column in an aprotic solvent ; such as acetonitrile , life time will be longer.
Methanol seems not very suitable for short chain columns ( C-8 , C-6 , C-4 etc )because of hydrolysis.