By Pål V. Hemmingsen on Tuesday, January 9, 2001 - 01:55 am:
Hi
I'm currently packing my own SEC columns using poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) particles. As columns I have used some old Waters styragel columns, with old frits which I have cleaned in methanol in an ultrasound bath. When I started I used rather tough packing conditions, and experienced peak doubling. This was probably caused by blocked frits from fragments of damaged column particles. Later I used a kinder packing method and made some satisfactory columns. However, I still have some problems on some columns with broad peaks and I wonder if some of the frits I have could still be blocked. Has anyone some suggestion on how to clean frits, blocked with poly(styrene-divylbenzene)? The frits seems to be metallic, the poresize I guess is 2 um, they are from Waters styragel HT 6E columns.
Best Regards
Pål V. Hemmingsen
By bill tindall on Tuesday, January 9, 2001 - 09:02 am:
I have never tried to clean a frit so the following is a guess. Styrene divinylbenzene polymers can be analyzed by pyrolysis, that is they nearly quantitatively pyrolyze to monomers upon heating. Hence, it might be possible to remove this polymer from a frit by heating the frit to a few hundred degrees.
Alternatively,Waters might sell you some new frits.
By Anonymous on Thursday, January 11, 2001 - 12:25 am:
Boil them in 50% nitric acid for at least 30mins.
By Anonymous on Tuesday, February 6, 2001 - 07:25 am:
Try a cleaning with ultrasonic bath for 30 min
in 15% nitric acid.
By Guido on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 08:55 am:
Get some new spare frits on hand, don't waste your time and money with cleaning experiments!
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