Eliminate Doubt with MaxPeak Premier Columns

Significance of Enhanced Chromatographic Reliability

Ensuring precise, reproducible, and fast separations is critical in fields ranging from pharmaceutical development to environmental monitoring. Uncontrolled interactions between analytes and column hardware can lead to peak tailing, signal loss, and variable results. MaxPeak Premier Columns with High Performance Surfaces (HPS) are designed to suppress non-specific adsorption and minimize metal-analyte interactions, delivering consistent, high-confidence data from the first injection.

Study Objectives and Overview

The primary goal of recent investigations into MaxPeak Premier Columns was to demonstrate how surface-engineered hardware enhances accuracy, control, speed, reproducibility, and user confidence compared with conventional stainless steel columns. Studies assessed assay-to-assay precision, peak shape for acidic and phosphorylated compounds, sensitivity improvements, and time-to-market benefits across multiple analyte classes on ACQUITY Premier Systems.

Methodology and Instrumentation

Analyses were conducted on Waters ACQUITY Premier ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography systems equipped with MaxPeak Premier Columns featuring HPS technology. Key instrumental components included stainless steel and titanium column hardware treated to reduce oxide surface interactions. Test protocols involved:

• Multiple injections (n=10) of standard mixtures containing metoprolol, hydrocortisone phosphate, dexamethasone phosphate, prednisone, amitriptyline, and dipropyl phthalate to assess precision.
• Comparison of retention times and carry-over using ACQUITY BEH C18 and ACQUITY Premier HPS columns.
• Recovery studies of metal-sensitive analytes in acidic conditions to evaluate tailing and peak symmetry.
• Conditioning time measurements to quantify time saved before reaching stable baselines.

Key Findings and Discussion

Precision and Accuracy

• MaxPeak Premier Columns achieved an average injection-to-injection %RSD of 3.6%, compared to 29.6% on standard stainless steel columns over ten injections.
• Less than 11% change in peak area from injection one to ten, versus over 340% on conventional hardware, demonstrating superior stability.

Peak Shape and Sensitivity

• Significant reduction in tailing for acidic and phosphorylated compounds, yielding sharper, more symmetrical peaks.
• Up to tenfold faster data processing due to minimal column conditioning and rapid achievement of stable baselines.

Control and Reproducibility

• ISO-certified manufacturing and strict quality controls ensure reproducible performance batch to batch and system to system.
• Retention times on Premier HPS columns matched those of legacy BEH columns, facilitating seamless method transfer.

Speed and Throughput

• Elimination of lengthy passivation steps enabled direct analysis of metal-sensitive analytes, reducing time-to-market.
• Reduced need for mobile phase additives and surface reconditioning lowered operational costs and complexity.

Benefits and Practical Applications

By minimizing secondary interactions, MaxPeak Premier Columns allow analysts to:

• Deliver reliable quantitation of acidic drugs, peptides, and oligonucleotides without extensive column washing.
• Accelerate method development and validation across diverse applications, including biopharmaceutical QC and environmental analysis.
• Transfer existing methods between different LC platforms without retuning retention profiles.

Future Trends and Applications

Continued innovation in surface chemistry is expected to drive further improvements in metal-sensitive analyses, with potential expansion into native mass spectrometry and multidimensional chromatography. Integration with automated sample-preparation and high-throughput workflows will enhance screening capabilities in drug discovery. Emerging demands for trace-level impurity profiling and real-time process monitoring will benefit from robust column technologies that maintain performance under challenging conditions.

Conclusion

MaxPeak Premier Columns featuring High Performance Surfaces offer a comprehensive solution for eliminating doubt in chromatographic separations. By addressing metal interaction and non-specific adsorption, these columns deliver enhanced accuracy, control, speed, reproducibility, and confidence. Adoption of this technology streamlines workflows, reduces operational complexity, and supports high-throughput, regulatory-compliant analyses across the life sciences and beyond.

References

• Waters Corporation. Recovery of metal-sensitive analytes on the ARC Premier Solution: System-to-system reproducibility and a multi-system comparison to conventional LC. Application Note, 2021.
• Waters Corporation. Challenge accepted: ARC Premier System increases sensitivity and reproducibility for hard-to-see compounds. Application Note, 2021.
• Waters Corporation. Biopharma Innovation of the Year 2021. Wiley Analytical Science Awards, 2023.