Chromatography Forum

Dear colleagues,

I am looking to analyze the amount of formate/formic acid, ethanol and methanol (and if possible, some other small oxygenates) in aqueous samples with HPLC. We have an Aminex HPX-87H column available which I have read could be suitable for this, but our issue is that our samples have a high concentration of salts (e.g. 0.1 M KHCO3, 0.2 M phosphate buffers, etc.). Is this a problem for the column? is this analysis even approachable with HPLC?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help!

Use a guard cartridge and change it frequently.

Your Aminex column should stand these conditions, but, as Tom stated, use a guard column. Good luck.

Thanks a lot for your help! I'll go with the guard column and see how the chromatography goes