I am trying to select a polor column for the analysis of some amino acids (underivatized)using mass spec. I found a column from a paper and it is called polyHYDROXYETHYL column. I do not know who is the manufacturer of the column. Would anybody know? If any of you have good experiences with one perticular column for amino acids please let me know. Thanks.

Hi,

The full name of the column you mentioned is Polyhydroxyethyl aspartamide and is commercialised by PolyLC. The person that you would like maybe to contact is Andy Alpert and his e-mail is PolyLC@aol.com.

I have also used this type of columns for underivatized amino acid separation and it works well. Just have in mind that you will work in Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography (HILIC) mode.

Thank you Kostas.

I found several vendors making HILIC type columns.
They are:
1)Polyhydroxyethyl A columns by PolyLC
2)Polarity columns by Waters
3)TSK-Gel Amide-80 columns by TOSOH BIOSEP

My question is are these columns equivalent?

Thanks in advance.

As a guess, probably as equivalent as "C18" columns from different manufacturers! :-)

We have recently introduced the novel ZIC™-HILIC column for separation of polar compounds. This phase is also available in a Solid Phase Extraction Cartridge for method development or sample work-up.

The ZIC™-HILIC column has a zwitterionic stationary phase on porous silica. The separation is achieved by weak electrostatic interactions and the unique selectivity of the very hydrophilic stationary phase.

In a paper presented at PrepTech 2002, the retention (k’) of amino acids versus the content of acetonitrile in the mobile phase was illustrated. The k’-values increases with higher acetonitrile content in the mobile phase and the hydrophilicity of the amino acid. This ortogonal behavior compared to reversed phase was also shown for some peptides, tryptic digests, and plant hormones. The complete paper is available at http://www.sequant.com

Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography (HILIC); Elution by an initial high content (>70%) of acetonitrile or low alcohols on a hydrophilic stationary phase. Volatile buffers may also be used so HILIC is indeed suitable for MS detection.

Thank you all for your time.

Was looking for the same answer and came across this paper:Casetta et al., Clin. Chem. lab Med., 2000, v.38(5) p.391-401. They use a CN phase column. In addition, check out the Restek Allure acidix columns, they claim to be able to separate underivatized amino acids.

I have separated ten underivatized amino acids on ALLTECH Prevail C18 column, mobile phase is HFBA and TFA aquious,pH=1.0, ELSD 2000 as detector.It works well for fermentation sample.
you can go to www.alltechweb.com see the details.