Innovative Solutions for Your Toughest Separations

Arguably one of the most exciting Ionic Liquid Capillary Columns on the market is the Supelco Watercol™ column, from Merck. This column allows the qualitative and quantitative determination of water in a variety of matrices, by GC, eliminating the need for special testing for water. This is a revolutionary new method that is taking the industry by storm, causing users to say, "It's magic!".

If you happen to be looking for an ASTM D3606 alternative, Merck have used their Ionic Liquid technology to come out with a column specifically for this method. The SLB-ILD3606 column allows the complete resolution of aromatics and oxygenates in reformulated gasoline on one column, dramatically reducing analysis time and improving results.

Merck also provide several other columns specifically for petroleum and chemical analyses that simplify the analysis and provide reliable and reproducible results. Some of the applications include detailed hydrocarbon analysis, simulated distillation, sulphur compounds in fuel, fence line monitoring and more. 

In 2005, Prof. Daniel W. Armstrong, from University of Texas at Arlington, showed that dicationic and polycationic ionic liquids could successfully be used as viable GC stationary phases. These consist of two or more organic cations joined by a linkage, and associated with anions, which can be either inorganic or organic. Ionic liquid phases differ physically and chemically from non-ionic liquid stationary phases. They are much smaller compared to big, bulky polysiloxane polymers and polyethylene glycol phases, plus there are no active hydroxyl groups. These features lead to greater stability, even in the presence of moisture and/or oxygen. Many modifications are possible to alter selectivity. The base structure can be dicationic or polycationic. There are numerous cation, linkage, and anion choices. Pendant groups can be added to cations and/or linkages.

Merck has patented this technology under the Supelco® brand, and has the only commercially available Ionic liquid Capillary Columns in the market.

These columns have the opportunity to impact current practices along several paths. Columns can be engineered with similar selectivity to non-ionic liquid columns, but with higher operating temperatures and less susceptibility to damage from moisture and/or oxygen. Columns can also be engineered with completely unique selectivity to non-ionic liquid columns, producing good peak shape and resolution for compounds of varying functionality. In addition, columns can be used in multidimensional separations, due to their engineered orthogonality and high thermal stability.