RESTEK LC Columns and Accessories

Importance of LC Consumables and Columns

Liquid chromatography remains a cornerstone of modern analytical laboratories, underpinning applications in bioanalysis, environmental monitoring, food safety, pharmaceutical QC, and forensic toxicology. Robust, high-performance LC columns and accessories are critical for achieving reproducible separations, maximizing sample throughput, and ensuring consistent data quality, especially under the high pressures and complex gradients of LC-MS/MS workflows.

Study Overview and Objectives

This brochure presents Restek’s comprehensive LC portfolio—Raptor, Force, Roc, and specialty columns—together with protection and maintenance accessories. The objectives are to:

• Introduce Raptor superficially porous particle (SPP) columns with Ultra Selective Liquid Chromatography (USLC) phases.
• Detail Force fully porous particle (FPP) columns scalable between HPLC and UHPLC.
• Describe Roc traditional HPLC columns covering 98 % of USP methods.
• Summarize key performance highlights, instrumentation compatibility, and practical applications.

Methodology and Instrumentation

Columns and accessories were designed and tested across major LC platforms:

• Agilent 1100/1200/1260; Waters Alliance/ACQUITY; Shimadzu Nexera/Prominence
• Pressure testing up to 15,000 psi (1 034 bar) on SPP, 8 700 psi (600 bar) on FPP
• Quality control of retention time, efficiency, reproducibility over hundreds of injections

Main Results and Discussion

Raptor SPP columns combine speed and selectivity:

• Biphenyl phase offers enhanced retention for dipolar aromatics and isobar resolution in sub-3 min bioanalytical assays.
• ARC-18 phase withstands pH 1–3 mobile phases for multiclass pesticide screens with <15 s MRM windows.
• FluoroPhenyl phase delivers reversible-phase and HILIC separations of polar compounds like vitamin D epimers.

Force FPP columns enable scalable methods:

• C18, Biphenyl, FluoroPhenyl phases in 1.8, 3, 5 µm deliver consistent performance from HPLC to UHPLC.
• Extended column life and lot-to-lot reproducibility under rapid gradient cycling.

Roc HPLC columns demonstrate reliable value:

• C18, C8, phenyl-hexyl, cyano, and bare silica phases covering USP monographs.
• Reproducible separations over 1 000+ injections.

Practical Benefits and Applications

• High-throughput screening: pain panels in <5 min; multiclass LC-MS/MS in 10 min
• Dilute-and-shoot workflows with robust EtG/EtS analysis
• Scalable methods for legacy HPLCs and modern UHPLCs
• Extended column lifetimes with EXP guard fittings and UltraShield filters

Future Trends and Opportunities

• Wider adoption of core-shell SPP columns fused with highly selective phases
• Growing use of HILIC for polar analytes without ion-pair reagents
• Integration of cartridge and filter protection to minimize downtime
• Continued expansion of LC-MS/MS applications across new compound classes

Conclusion

Restek’s LC portfolio addresses the evolving demands of analytical laboratories by combining innovation in column chemistry, particle design, and accessory protection. From ultra-fast SPP Raptor phases to scalable Force columns and dependable Roc HPLC columns, these products deliver reproducible, high-efficiency separations across diverse matrices and instrumentation, ensuring that your LC work truly flows.

Reference

No external literature references were provided in the source content.