Disposable microbore high-pressure liquid chromatography columns for protein and peptide separations

A range of high-performance Liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns with inter nal diameters of 0.25 to 1.8 nun have been constructed by securing glass or plastic tubing into standard HPLC fittings. These were packed with chromat ographic materials chosen for operation at moderate pressures with high flo w rates. These columns were shown to be effective in a conventional HPLC in strument for peptide and protein separations in reverse-phase mode and for proteins in ion-exchange and size-exclusion modes. The simple construction and low cost of these microbore columns allow them to be considered as disp osable. Using only small amounts of any type of packing material, they have the flexibility to be adapted to a wide range of analytical and microprepa rative separations. (C) 1999 Academic Press.