Core-shell column Tanaka characterization and additional tests using active pharmaceutical ingredients

In the last decade, core-shell particles have gained more and more attention in fast liquid chromatography separations due to their comparable performance with fully porous sub-2 μm particles and their significantly lower back pressure. Core-shell particles are made of a solid core surrounded by a shell of classic fully porous material. To embrace the developed core-shell column market and use these columns in pharmaceutical analytical applications, 17 core-shell C₁₈ columns purchased from various vendors with various dimensions (50 mm × 2.1 mm to 100 mm × 3 mm) and particle sizes (1.6-2.7 μm) were characterized using Tanaka test protocols. Furthermore, four selected active pharmaceutical ingredients were chosen as test probes to investigate the batch to batch reproducibility for core-shell columns of particle size 2.6-2.7 μm, with dimension of 100 × 3 mm and columns of particle size 1.6 μm, with dimension 100 × 2.1 mm under isocratic elution. Columns of particle size 2.6-2.7 μm were also tested under gradient elution conditions. To confirm the claimed comparable efficiency of 2.6 μm core-shell particles as sub-2 μm fully porous particles, column performances of the selected core-shell columns were compared with BEH C₁₈ , 1.7 μm, a fully porous column material as well.