Chromatography Forum

Dear members,

I am using Duran borosilicate glass bottles for the 200 mM NaOH eluent. Is it possible that something is leached from the bottles that could explain by current column malfunction? The column manual actually recommends using plastic bottles for this reason but we had chosen Duran to be safe with CO2.

Many thanks in advance!

That concentrated an alkali *will* etch glass. The column manufacturer recommended plastic for a reason.

I totally agree with Tom. You will find borate in your eluent.
In our experience polypropylene plastic bottles e.g. Nalgene will work fine. means only little CO2 diffusion.

I must admit that I didn't know that it was not safe to use NaOH in Duran glass bottles

Is this why 10M NaOH (in Duran) becomes hazy after a while? Is there any safe concentration of NaOH in borosilicate glass?