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Chromatography Gels

Chromatography Gels

Your One-stop Process Scale Chromatography Gels Supplier

Zeochem’s chromatography silica gels are (amorphous) porous silica gels in various forms (irregular, beads, spherical) used as analytical and industrial column packing materials for the filtration and/or purification of biopharmaceuticals, APIs, intermediates, nutraceuticals, food and beverage, and cosmetics.

Our silica gels are produced according to ISO-9001. They are preferably applied in analytical and preparative industrial chromatography, such as analytical and preparative liquid chromatography (LC), flash chromatography, analytical and preparative high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), continuous chromatography and other chromatographic techniques.

These gels are manufactured to meet the highest mechanical and chemical stability; narrow, unvarying particle size distributions; and large and consistent specific surface areas. These characteristics allow for an increased number of cyclic uses. Due to rigorous control of fines, pressure drop is kept low, to the benefit of process flow and process time.

We manufacture hundreds of tons of silica a year for a broad range of chromatography applications. Our products are sold worldwide directly and/or via agents and distributors.

Zeochem chromatography silica gels are available in three product lines:

  • ZEOprep – Irregular shape
  • ZEObeads – Spheroidal shape
  • ZEOsphere – Spherical shape

For more information on our product portfolio, please visit our product catalog site at www.purifications.com.

Extraordinary Product Capabilities

The quality of silica gel and modification is extremely important when it’s used in chromatography applications, particularly when dealing with difficult separations of your valuable compounds. The excellent and unique selectivity of our product portfolio will lead to higher recovery and will decrease your production costs.

In chromatography, there are at least three physical properties that will influence your separation that need to be considered when selecting a silica gel:

  • Particle shape (irregular, microbeads or spherical)
  • Particle size distribution (tight or large)
  • Pore diameter (surface area)

These characteristics will directly influence the crucial parameters of a successful chromatography:

  • Resolution – efficiency of separation and final purity and recovery – which is controlled by:
    • Selectivity – Selectivity represents the separation power of particular adsorbent to the mixture of the particular components.
    • Efficiency – The efficiency of a chromatographic peak is a measure of the dispersion of the analyte band as it travels through the HPLC system and column.
    • Retention – The retention (or capacity) factor (k) is a means of measuring the retention of an analyte on the chromatographic column.
  • Capacity – Maximal sample quantity and final recovery, or yield.
  • Back-pressure – Capacity-related issue.

Consistency, Reliability & Reproducibility

At Zeochem, we ensure consistency, reliability, and reproducibility. Our expertise and strong chromatographic knowledge have been developed over many years, helping you find the best solutions for your needs. For spherical silica gel applications, we offer in-house method-development services. Let our expertise help you speed up your separation process development.

The advantage of using our gels over standard silica gels includes the following:

  • Increased selectivity
  • Enhanced efficiency
  • Higher resolution
  • Ease of packing/better packing reproducibility
  • Enhanced chemical and mechanical stability, leading to excellent material lifetimes

How to Choose Between Irregular, Microbead and Spherical Gels

Irregular (cost-efficient) and microbead (relatively cost-efficient and better separation performance than irregular) silica gels are traditional in flash or gravity chromatography and have always been an excellent choice for less difficult preparative chromatography applications.

In many separations of related compounds, a high-performance silica gel is required to achieve reasonable differences in retention times, even if the differences in the chemical structure of the compounds to be separated are small. Spherical particles are then preferred.

Maximum selectivity of the compounds is essential. Cost reduction is the most important objective in preparative and process chromatography. Classic available reversed phases and ion-exchange materials are inefficient due to selectivity limitations (acceptable purity, but low recovery/yield).

ZEOsphere DRP Mixed-Mode product line complies with the requirements outlined above. Through its improved selectivity for charged molecules, substantial higher recovery at lower organic solvent consumption can be obtained.

Zeochem’s Chromatographic Gels for Excellent Separation Process Efficiency

Zeochem’s chromatography gels product line:

ZEOprep – Irregular shape Column packing material for:

  • Solid-phase extraction
  • Flash chromatography
  • Preparative liquid chromatography (LC)

ZEObeads – Microbeads Column packing material for:

  • Solid-phase extraction
  • Flash chromatography
  • Preparative liquid chromatography (LC)

ZEOsphere – Spherical shape Column packing material for:

  • Analytical (HP) LC
  • Preparative (HP) LC
  • Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)
  • Continuous chromatography

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Your One-stop Shop for Your Process-scale Chromatography Needs

ZEOprep, ZEObeads and ZEOsphere excel in their efficiency to create the best filtration, separation and purification solutions for a large variety of compounds and/or industries.

Chromatography Gels

Irregular Shape

Irregular shape chromatography silica gels are used as industrial column packing material for the purification of natural products, chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as packing material for flash cartridges and SPE (solid phase extraction).

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Chromatography Gels

Spherical Shape

ZEOsphere classical silica-based stationary phases offer excellent separation performance for any type of separation or purification applications.

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Chromatography Gels

Spheroidal Shape

Amorphous porous chromatography silica gels in spheroidal shape (microbeads) are used as industrial and analytical column packing material. They perform particularly well as packing material for flash columns.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • The larger the molecular weight of the target molecule to be separated the larger the pore size needs to be. The sample molecules need to be able to interact with the pores of the particle to create an efficient separation mechanism. If the pores are smaller than your target molecule it will not be retained and elute immediately.
  • The larger the average pore size of the material the smaller will be the effective surface area. If you have less surface area available, your separation is generally less efficient. It is important to choose the right pore size for your target molecule.
  • Size and distribution of the silica particles effect the packing efficiency of the columns and therefore process performance.
  • The higher the packing density, the higher the surface area, the more interaction between eluent and separation material resulting in higher efficiency separation. However, the higher the packing density, the smaller the mean particle size is and therefore the higher the backpressure will be.

Bonding different chemical groups onto the surface of bare silica results in functionalized silicas which give higherselectivity towards specific molecules.

  • Bare/Silica has a high polar surface, it is the most popular stationary phase, ideal for conventional applications (normal phase separations, non-polar target molecules, pharmaceuticals, natural products)
  • C4; suited to molecules with large hydrophobic regions, peptides, proteins. Usually combined with a large pore size for big biomolecules (>1000Da)
  • PHE/phenyl; moderately nonpolar for aromatic compounds, aflatoxins, caffeine, phenols.
  • C8; highly hydrophobic pesticides, peptides, drugs
  • C18; more apolar than C8 and in reversed phase chromatography higher retention than C8. Has a non-polar surface, ideal for pharmaceuticals, steroids, fatty acids, peptides, proteins, pesticides, PCB’s
  • Amino/NH2has a medium polar surface, ideal for carbohydrates and nitrogen containing heterocycles and amines. Scavenger applications.
  • Diolhas a lesspolar surface (than bare silica) and still many hydroxy-groups, ideal for lipids; Our best option for many SFC applications.
  • Cyano/CN unique selectivity for polar analytes with widely different chemistry eg. Cyclosporine, carbohydrates
  • Thiol/SH; Mainly used for scavenging
  • SCX/SO4–:Ion Exchange for strong cation
  • SAX/TMA; Ion exchange for weak anion
  • NH2P; Ion exchange for scavenging
  • Morphology of the silica particles; meaning bead shape
  • Surface area: this is a function of particle- and pore size
  • Surface functionalisation
  • Particle size distribution in terms of range and actual distribution of particles within the range (D10/D50/D90)
  • Irregular silica beads to be used in low -medium pressure systems
  • Spheroidal Silica beads can be used in low to high pressure systems
  • Spherical silica beads primarily used for high-resolution high-pressure systems
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