5 Things to Consider When Selecting a Chromatography Silica

The ability to purify and separate combined materials has significantly improved in recent years, thanks to technological and scientific advancements in chromatography. Today, chromatography is used across a wide range of applications that rely on highly pure ingredients, including in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutraceutical, food, environmental and chemical industries. Particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, drug purity is critical for achieving safety, stability and efficacy.

For example, oligonucleotide purification can be challenging because of their diversity and the level of impurities generated during the production process. However, this new class of drugs has shown great potential for precision medicine approaches and is expected to grow significantly, with over 400 oligonucleotide molecules in development as of 2023. Chromatography represents an optimal solution for removing impurities in oligonucleotides, but selecting the right resin is a critical factor in achieving highly pure results.

A variety of silicas are available for purification using chromatography columns, but determining which will provide the optimal result for your application is critical to producing the desired outcome. A combination of particle size, pore size and surface area can all factor into which product to choose – using the right resin can help ensure high selectivity, quality, efficiency and sustainability of your purification process.

Considerations When Selecting a Chromatography Resin

Silicas come in all sorts of sizes and with a variety of traits that can influence the outcome of the chemical separation. When selecting a chromatographic resin, here are five characteristics to consider:

Particle size: A tighter particle size distribution can optimize the efficiency and pressure drop packed in columns.
Porosity: Understanding the molecular weight of the target compound can help determine which resin pore size is most appropriate.
Surface chemistry/Custom bonding: Alternative selectivities can be achieved through resin surface modifications with various bonding chemistries, such as C18, Amino, Diol or Cyano, for optimal purity.
Scale: Whether you're purifying a small sample for analytical purposes, as part of a preparative step, or deploying as part of a process for commercial production, the scale of your project can help determine the right particle size.
Surface area: A higher surface area contributes to a higher binding and loading capacity.

One Chromatographic Silica with Many Applications

Finding the right silica with the traits you need doesn't have to be a challenge. Look for one like Grace's DAVISIL® chromatographic silica, available in a wide range of pore diameters and particle sizes to meet your application, performance and sustainability requirements. With particle sizes ranging from 10 to 300 µm and pore sizes ranging from 30Å to 4500 Å, DAVISIL® silicas are suitable for purification of small molecules to large biomolecules, including oligonucleotides and peptides.

Silica gel grades that exhibit higher surface area, lower bulk density and tighter particle size distribution can contribute to:

High loading capacity: for fewer required purification cycles.
High efficiency: with optimal size classifications for high resolution separations and low pressure drop.
Exceptional product reliability: with less metal contamination than comparable irregular silica resins.
Better solvent consumption: by using less solvent, the purification process generates less impact on the environment.
Less material waste: especially in the preparative process to commercial scale up.
Superior purity: through the removal of unwanted impurities.

Meeting the Need for Bioseparations

For purification of large molecules, our DAVISIL® Extra Wide Pore (XWP) portfolio offers one of the broadest ranges of large pore sizes (from 500 Å to 4500 Å) on the market with narrow pore size distributions. Its extra wide pores allow the capture of large biomolecules, making DAVISIL® XWP particularly well-suited to purification of biologics such as vaccines and antibodies in low, medium or high-pressure systems as it exhibits good mechanical strength for packing under axial compression conditions.

When choosing the right chromatography resin for your next project, consider the particle size, porosity, surface area, surface chemistry and scale. Finally, think about the technical support you’ll need to best implement your next purification project.