Chromatography Forum

Hi

In Thermo's MAbPac SCX-10 column product manual , its instructed that "Never wash the column in water alone. Always use a buffer with minimum ionic strength of 20mM. ". Do anyone know why is this so ? How flushing Ion exchange column is water will harm it ?

Thanks a lot

https://assets.thermofisher.com/TFS-Ass ... 393-EN.pdf
Page 12:
Minimum concentration of 20 mM NaCl, or equivalent ionic strength in buffers:
Thermo Scientific recommends a minimum concentration of 20 mM NaCl or equivalent ionic strength in buffers. Failure to maintain a minimum ionic strength in buffers will result in alteration of the stationary phase conformation resulting in an increase in the column backpressure beyond the maximum recommended value. If this occurs, remove the column from the system, flush the buffer from the system and replenish with buffer B containing your high salt concentration. Pump buffer B through the column at a low flow rate (0.1-0.2 mL/min), until the backpressure returns back to original pressure.
...
If the ionic strength is too low, the structure of the stationary phase will be affected, causing a significant increase in backpressure.