Waters Launches Sustainable Microflow LC Columns
Waters introduced its next-generation MaxPeak Premier microflow LC columns, designed for higher sensitivity with lower resource consumption. The new columns promise up to a fourfold reduction in solvent use and require up to 75% less sample, aligning with sustainability goals while accelerating analytical results.
- The MaxPeak Premier Hardware technology is designed to minimize interactions between analytes and the metal surfaces of the column, which can otherwise lead to sample losses and poor peak shapes for metal-sensitive compounds like oligonucleotides, phosphopeptides, and certain small molecules. This reduction in non-specific adsorption improves analyte recovery and data quality without requiring time-consuming tasks like column passivation. - Microflow liquid chromatography (LC) operates at lower flow rates (typically 1-100 µL/min) than traditional HPLC, which enhances mass spectrometry (MS) sensitivity. The smaller, more concentrated droplets generated at these lower flow rates improve ionization efficiency in the MS source, leading to better detection for a wide variety of analytes, with particular benefits for peptides and proteins. - The new 1 mm internal diameter (I.D.) columns represent a significant size reduction from standard analytical columns, which are often 2.1 mm or 4.6 mm I.D. This smaller format is a key factor in reducing solvent consumption and the required sample injection volume, directly addressing laboratory sustainability goals and lowering operational costs. - This launch is part of a broader industry trend toward miniaturization and automation in laboratory settings to increase efficiency and throughput. In cell and gene therapy manufacturing, for example, there is a significant push away from manual, open processes toward automated, closed systems to ensure GMP compliance, reduce contamination risks, and improve process scalability. - Waters has a history of innovation in LC technology, including the introduction of the first commercial HPLC system, the Model 200, in the mid-1960s and the development of Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC) in 2004, which utilized sub-2-µm particles for faster and more efficient separations. - The application of these columns in biopharmaceutical analysis is critical, as techniques like HPLC and UHPLC are essential for assessing the purity, potency, and stability of complex biological molecules, including monoclonal antibodies and viral vectors used in gene therapies. - The emphasis on sustainability aligns with a larger movement within the scientific community, where organizations like My Green Lab are promoting greener practices. In June 2024, Waters became the first to receive the My Green Lab ACT Ecolabel for 42 of its LC columns, independently validating their environmental impact. - For applications in 'omics (proteomics, metabolomics), where samples are often limited and complex, the increased sensitivity and reduced sample requirements of microflow LC can be particularly advantageous. Professor Oliver Fiehn at UC Davis noted the new columns would allow his metabolomics team to save solvent while maintaining reproducible and accurate results in high-throughput work.
