Advice sought:Polar GC columns for separation of amino acids

[noah.honch]

I am aiming to separate derivatized amino acids (from bone collagen) via GC (using an Agilent 6890). I am seeking advice related to the purchase of polar GC columns (akin to the Varian VF-23ms). Specifically:

1. What polar GC columns allow for the separation of most amino acids?

2. Is the enhanced separation on a 60 m column (vs a 30 m column) worth the increase in cost?

FYI: I will be implementing the following derivatization methods:

1. n-pivaloyl i-propyl esters
2. trifluoroacetyl-i-propyl esters
3. n-acetyl i-propyl esters

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[BG]

hi noah,

What are the derivatized amino acid you want to separate because there is a column, CP chirasil dex cb which can done the separation of this kind of sample............most of time it's done with HPLC, maybe not in collagen, i don't know.

[noah.honch]

I am interested in getting baseline separation between as many amino acids as possible at the moment (there has been some success in doing this with GC-C-IRMS as far as the literature goes, particularly in the case of n-pivaloyl i-propyl esters). I will work at targeting specific amino acids later. I am working on methodological developments and applications of GC-C-IRMS to archaeological bones (to obtain stable isotope signatures of carbon and nitrogen from collagen).

I have a colleague who is working on the HPLC side of things (and I will forward your response to him), but my aim is to continue on the GC-C-IRMS side. As I understand it, polar columns provide the best separation, and I was wondering if anyone familiar with polar columns might be able to suggest specific makes for the purposes of my research (e.g. particular brands and optimum lengths (such as 30 vs 60m).