5 Key Learnings from Chromatography Industry Leaders

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5 key learnings from chromatography industry leaders 3 1

The broad spectrum of information about chromatography can be daunting at times. The amount of data online is enough to fill an encyclopedia. Yet, there are five key points that keep coming up when researching the web.

This article will cover what we’ve learned from hundreds of websites. All taken from the industry leads and summarised for you to absorb it all in one place.

We will cover the following topics to help you in your career:

  1. Ongoing educational resources 
  2. Planning your career path
  3. Maintenance of machinery and laboratory
  4. Technical aspects of an ever-changing industry
  5. The best HPLC vials for your work

Ongoing Educational Resources for Chromatography

You can learn all about the topic in Universities and STEM area schools. But, it would help if you continue with your education after that.

Here are some of the best online sources for expanding your knowledge:

CHROMacademy 

It’s available for free for academics and their students. CHROMacademy offers a variety of options. For example, the chance to create notes called “Learning Paths”. You can then share with your students. Developed and updated daily by highly-knowledgeable chromatographers with decades of experience. Endorsed by the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society. 

Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL)

Founded by the National Science Foundation. This digital library consists of peer-reviewed resources on chemical measurements. You will also find instrumentation and materials on active learning. It’s free and used by students, teachers, and others in analytical chemistry. 

HPLC simulator 

A simulator that allows the selection of many various real analytes. But also mobile phases, typical injection, and column properties. It helps gain a better understanding of real-life situations without going to the lab. 

Planning your career path

To be a chromatographer, you must have a degree. A bachelor’s or master’s degree, or even better, a Ph.D. It’s a growing industry (7% per year), and the pay is fair to the work.

There are a lot of uses in the industry daily, here are some of them: 

  1. Creating the vaccinations 
  2. Food testing 
  3. Beverage testing 
  4. Drug testing
  5. Forensic testing

Apart from the daily usage, here are some of the careers in the field (which you can pursue): 

  1. Chemical technicians 
  2. Agricultural Science Technician
  3. Forensic Science Technician
  4. Research Associates
  5. Manufacturing Scientists
  6. Informatics Sales Specialists
  7. Data scientists

Maintenance of machinery and laboratory

Essential maintenance of the equipment is a must. Here are a few tips for maintaining some of the equipment you see and use each day.

Degrasser

First of all, ensure no bubbles in the outlet lines. To prevent any blockages, clean with water to remove buffer salts.

Solvents

Use 0.45µm filters for the buffer solutions. And make sure to use only quality HPLC solvents.

Fully submerging solvent bottles is key to preventing air in the system.

Replace the solvents often (every 2 to 3 days) to keep the algae away.

Autosampler and Column

Autosampler and Column will be okay if you treat your samples right. Choosing the correct sample preparation method will be vital to cleaning them. Thus, preventing contamination.

Pump

Make sure to purge the pump every day. Remove any air bubbles that may appear. You may find them in solvent bottles. But also in the tubing or pump.

The ripple should be stable to avoid pressure fluctuations and detector noise.

Remove any buffer salts in the pump when changing to the mobile phase.

Detector

Take care of the flow cell and the lamp of the detector. Always replace the lamp when needed.

To prevent the growth of algae overnight, make sure to use at least 10% organic mobile phase. pH should always be over 9.5 with flow cells.

Technical aspects of an ever-changing industry

Evolving with technology is a necessity. It would be best to stay on top of the news and breakthroughs. Here is a small summary of how technology changed and what brought us here today. This can be a perfect example of how everything changes so fast and that we need to adapt even quicker.

In 1930, we can find the development of the first ion exchange chromatography column based on a zeolite stationary phase. This was a considerable achievement. This technique allowed the separation of particles based on their charge.

Jumping right to the ’70s. With the transition from large to small porous particles in HPCL columns. We can see that technology evolves fast.

With each new piece of information, remarkable things occur. Here are some of the latest developments that happened. Based on News Medical Life Sciences.

Pharmaceutical analysis

The performance of the RPLC improved thanks to pharmaceutical analysis. Why? Due to higher costs in drug development and the complexity of the drug discovery process. This led to an improvement in resolution terms.

That’s what pushed the development of ultrahigh performance/pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC). This update allowed higher levels of efficiency and increased throughout.

Because of this development, several innovative chromatographic columns are now on the market. They focus primarily on the pharmaceutical industry.

Forensics

For several decades, the forensic sector used LC. They were doing so to test for amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, among others. But the development of UHPLC also improved LC methods.

It’s used in combination with tandem mass spectrometry. This is to improve the accuracy of the technique.

Metabolomics

Within the metabolomics field, the most used analytics platform is mass spectrometry. Combining the method with LC or GC has enhanced the technique’s precision and resolution.

The best HPLC vials for your work

When choosing a suitable vial for your samples, there are four things you need to be careful about. As most of our readers know, you can choose between glass and plastic vials. On top of that, you need to select the size and color of the vial. 

Choose from reliable product quality, and ensure clean packaging. 

It is essential to favor new vials instead of reused ones.

While not recommended, you can reuse old vials. As Hawach Scientific states, disposing of the vials is costly and wasteful. To make the vials safe enough, you have to follow the next steps:

  1. Rinse the vial with running water. Rinse the sample by shaking it in your hand to be entirely sure. 
  2. Use a potassium dichromate lotion bubble and let it sit. When it accumulates, take it out and rinse it with tap water.
  3. Use ultrasonic to clean the vial with tap water (three times).
  4. With triple distilled water, clean the vial three times with 1.3 ultrasonic cleanings. 
  5. Clean the vial three times with pure chromatographic methanol. After each cleaning, rinse the vials to remove the methanol completely. 
  6. After washing, put the vial in the oven and dry it completely at 80 degrees.

Conclusion 

Chromatography is a great field to work in, but it has its challenges. Make sure to stay up to date with relevant research. Additionally, keep learning from renowned online resources in the field.

With such an ever-evolving industry, you will never have a dull moment!

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