HPLC & LC/MS Columns

Why is Echelon so good?

Echelon material has been designed from start to finish to optimize analysis of the most challenging basic and acidic compounds.

Pure silica means symmetric peaks.

Echelon silica is manufactured using the purest reagents available, in a process that excludes contaminates from the silica bead structure as it forms. Conventional silicas contain large amounts of metal ion (Fe, Al, Mg, Mn, Cr, Ti, and Ni) and sulfate contaminants, which reduce silica performance. Metal ions increase the acidity of surrounding silanols, promoting increased interaction with polar contaminants, like bases. With Echelon, metals are nonexistent, particularly at the silica surface where their effects are most deleterious. This resulting silica is extremely pure.

• Wide pH range stability, pH 2-11
• Ideal for basic and acidic analytes
• No secondary Si-OH interaction
• High capacity: smaller particles = higher efficiency

The role our unique C18 (Echelon) can fill in your lab:

• As a go-to all around column for small, polar, low-molecular weight compounds, that might not typically retain on a C18.
• For compounds that would either be ran on a polar column (e.g. Waters T3 HSS, or Phenomenex Synergi-RP) – which might show marginal improvement over a generic C18, or most likely have to be run as HILIC, or even SFC. Those last two options are not ideal for a fast pace work-flow as they take a lot of upfront method development to optimize retention.

Examples of where Echelon C18 was able to get great retention where “typical” C18 failed:
Benzoic acid– Almost baseline resolved for two isomers on Echelon C18 (see overlaid chromatograms below).
Acyclovir– Which can be used as a HILIC internal standard, still retains well on Echelon C18 with reverse phase chromatography.

Chromatograms of two separate injections of the isomers overlaid for easier comparison

Instrumentation: LC-MS/MS Triple quadrupole; UHPLC pressures on a 50×2.1mm, 1.8um Echelon C18 column (PN ADV8108)