Chromatography Forum

Hi

Could some one explain what is HSS (High Strength Silica)Technology ?
Waters claim that its the the first and only 100% silica particle designed to possess the mechanical stability necessary to withstand the high pressures (around 15,000 psi )

regards
Abhilash Menon

Mechanical stability of a silica particle is high if not only the particle size is small, but most important is the pore size.
I will ask the Waters people latest at Pittcon in Atlanta. I could not find pore size on the published data for HSS materials.

that's 1000 bar isn't it? I'm pretty sure that 2mm Kinetex columns are rated to 1000 bar too, so it certainly wouldn't be true to claim that no one else has a column sold with that limit. I've never tried to push a column up that far though, so I can't talk about how long they survive. I do think Waters columns are extremely good - but they also tend to be very pricey.

i was also wondering how are they making these silica particles of mechanical stability compared to the standard silica particles ?

You will get an idea of how to produce silica particles when reading the publications of Prof. Klaus K. Unger and Prof. R.P.W. Scott and Prof. Engelhard and some more. The real production process you will not get since this is property of the manufacturers.