Column Selector Freeware
Choose the Closest Alternative to a Given Chromatographic Column
A web-based tool to help you compare chromatographic columns to one another.
The Column Selector application helps chromatographers select suitable alternatives to a desired chromatographic column, closely matched for retention and selectivity, based on the Tanaka chromatographic parameters.
If you wish to compare only two columns to each other, choose the second column here.
Select Column 2
Weight Values
(Tanaka chromatographic parameter descriptions)
To increase the number of similar columns, set the weight for hydrophobic retention to zero (kPB = 0). The proportion of organic modifier in the mobile phase must be adjusted to compensate for differences in retention between the original and the new column. If the chromatography is being performed at low pH it may be appropriate to set the αB/P at pH 7.6 parameter to zero in order to deselect this term.
Columns that possess low chromatographic discrimination factors to the original column (i.e., CDF <1) will possess similar chromatographic properties. Whereas, in the method development area, columns with large CDF values (>1) will possess large differences in selectivity (and/or retention) to the original column.
Tanaka chromatographic parameter descriptions:
kPB reflects the hydrophobic retention and surface area of the column
αCH2 reflects the hydrophobicity of the column
αT/O reflects steric selectivity (a column with a high value is different from one with a low value however it is not possible to state which will give the largest selectivity between two analytes)
αC/P reflects the H-bonding capacity of a column
αB/P at pH 7.6 reflects the total number of free silanol groups on the column
αB/P at pH 2.7 reflects the number of acidic silanol groups on the column