ACD/Labs and researchers at AstraZeneca and HiChrom have made an updated version of their free software tool for reversed-phase HPLC column selection available for download. The new version adds 47 new columns to the database.
New chromatographic columns are introduced to the marketplace all the time, and with the wide selection available, finding the right column can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Therefore, with chromatographic data provided by long-time collaborators Patrik Petersson of AstraZeneca, and Mel Euerby of HiChrom, Advanced Chemistry Development (ACD/Labs) has been able to update ACD/Column Selector Freeware to include a total of 229 of the most popular columns used today.
ACD/Column Selector is the product of more than 3,400 experiments. As a starting point for method development, chromatographers can use it to identify equivalent columns or columns that vary widely in their characteristics, and search for columns that meet a single or multiple criteria.
ACD/Column Selector can be downloaded for free from the ACD/Labs website, and runs within ACD/Labs’ free chemical drawing tool ACD/ChemSketch Freeware — also downloadable from the website.
ACD/Column Selector evaluates columns based on parameters such as ligand density, hydrophobic sensitivity, shape selectivity, hydrogen bonding capacity, and total and acidic ion-exchange capacity. Since each parameter can be targeted individually, chromatographers can also search for columns that have high coefficients for a certain term, allowing them to change their columns to target a given structural aspect.
If a particular chromatographic column is unavailable, chromatographers may consult ACD/Column Selector and find the column that most closely matches the one they used previously. Conversely, if a column does not yield a good separation, Column Selector can help identify a column with different selectivity.
