A New Parallel High-Pressure Packing System Enables Rapid Multiplexed Production of Capillary Columns

Reversed-phase HPLC is the most commonly applied peptide-separation technique in MS-based proteomics. Particle-packed capillary columns are predominantly used in nanoflow HPLC systems. Despite being the broadly applied standard for many years, capillary columns are still expensive and suffer from short lifetimes, particularly in combination with ultra-high-pressure chromatography systems. For this reason, and to achieve maximum performance, many laboratories produce their own in-house packed columns. This typically requires a considerable amount of time and trained personnel. Here, we present a new packing system for capillary columns enabling rapid, multiplexed column packing with pressures reaching up to 3000 bar. Requiring only a conventional gas pressure supply and methanol as the driving fluid, our system replaces the traditional setup of helium-pressured packing bombs. By using 10x multiplexing, we have reduced the production time to just under 2 min for several 50 cm columns with 1.9-mm particle size, speeding up the process of column production 40 to 800 times. We compare capillary columns with various inner diameters and lengths packed under different pressure conditions with our newly designed, broadly accessible high-pressure packing station.

Automated summary

Reversed-phase HPLC is commonly used in MS-based proteomics for peptide separation, with particle-packed capillary columns being predominantly used in nanoflow HPLC systems. Despite capillary columns being a standard for many years, they are expensive and have short lifetimes, leading many laboratories to produce their own in-house packed columns.