{"id":51674,"date":"2014-02-10T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/uncategorized\/exploring-the-upper-temperature-limits-for-a-wax-gc-column\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T23:35:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T23:35:33","slug":"exploring-the-upper-temperature-limits-for-a-wax-gc-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/blogs\/gnbl4656\/exploring-the-upper-temperature-limits-for-a-wax-gc-column","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the upper temperature limits for a wax GC column"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I was traveling in Israel a few weeks ago, my new friend and colleague Efraim Graber of Balirom<\/a> asked me a question I\u2019ve heard often over the years, \u201cWhen is Restek going to introduce a high-temperature wax GC column?\u201d  Now I\u2019ve probably paraphrased that question a bit, because it might have been \u201chigh-temperature polar GC column\u201d, but for many flavor and fragrance chemists like Efraim, a wax (100% polyethylene glycol) is one of the \u201cgo to\u201d columns, along with a non-polar column like a \u201c1\u201d (100% dimethyl polysiloxane) or \u201c5\u201d (5% diphenyl – 95% dimethyl polysiloxane), based on using retention indices to identify flavor and fragrance compounds.  Reasons for desiring a high-temperature wax column include: eluting less volatile components in shorter times, better thermal stability, and lower bleed.  Another one is related to more mass spectrometer use in the industry, and that is installing the \u201c1\u201d or \u201c5\u201d column and the wax column in the same GC-MS system.  Unfortunately, that dictates that the GC oven temperature never exceeds the maximum operating temperature of the wax column (260\u00b0C, e.g., for the Restek Stabilwax), when an Rxi-1ms or Rxi-5ms can go to 350\u00b0C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most users of capillary GC columns, I assume the vendor puts maximum operating temperatures on the boxes for good reasons. But I couldn\u2019t help but think after Efraim told me that a 280\u00b0C operational temperature for our Stabilwax column would serve his needs, \u201cTry it, Jack, and see what happens!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I installed a 30m x 0.25mm x 0.25\u00b5m Stabilwax in an Agilent 6890 GC-FID.  I used a Fragrance Allergen Standards Kit and analyzed the A, B, and C mixes 13 times each back-to-back using GC oven programs that went to 260\u00b0C (the advertised maximum operating temperature of the Stabilwax), 270\u00b0C, and 280\u00b0C.  Helium carrier was used at a constant flow of 2 mL\/min.  The GC oven program was: 60\u00b0C (0.1 min), 10\u00b0C\/min to 260\/270\/280\u00b0C (5 min).  One microliter split injections at 250\u00b0C, split ratio 200:1, were made into a Restek Premium 4mm Precision Inlet Liner with wool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overlaid chromatograms for the first run from each series of runs are shown in Figure 1<\/strong> below to demonstrate the GC column bleed.  Restek tests for Stabilwax bleed at 250\u00b0C and this particular column showed 2.7 pa on the QC sheet.  As you can see from the figure, bleed for the Stabilwax approximately doubles for every 10\u00b0C increase in temperature.  Now if this was all there was to the story, maybe users could live with the increased bleed from 270 and 280\u00b0C Stabilwax final temperatures.  However, I eventually made 273 analyses to 280\u00b0C and you can see in Figure 2<\/strong> that the bleed is going up, up, up over that period of time.  What may not be obvious in that figure, but is easily seen for the zoomed-in chromatogram of Figure 3<\/strong>, is that retention times are shifting earlier and earlier as the Stabilwax stationary phase is lost due to repeatedly exceeding the recommended temperature maximum for the column.  Can we tolerate that retention drift?  Probably not, especially when you combine it with selectivity changes that occur as seen in Figure 4<\/strong> and the increased bleed over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem in a nutshell is that polyethylene glycol is just not stable at these elevated temperatures.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I showed this data at a recent R&D meeting and asked Restek stationary phase guru extraordinaire, Roy Lautamo, a man of few words, for a declaration on my experiments with Stabilwax at temperatures above the recommended maximum operating temperature.  Quote.  \u201cDon\u2019t do that.\u201d <\/strong> End-quote.  Enough said\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"decorative\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Products Mentioned<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n Catalog No. 10623 <\/a> <\/div>\n
\n
Stabilwax GC Capillary Column, 30 m, 0.25 mm ID, 0.25 \u00b5m<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \u67e5\u770b\u4ea7\u54c1<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n
\n Catalog No. 33105 <\/a> <\/div>\n
\n
Fragrance Allergen Standards Kit<\/div>\n <\/div>\n
\n \u67e5\u770b\u4ea7\u54c1<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was traveling in Israel a few weeks ago, my new friend and colleague Efraim Graber of Balirom asked me a question I’ve heard often over the years, “When is Restek going to introduce a high-temperature wax GC column?”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"industries-application":[],"post-badge":[],"resource-type":[],"product-library":[],"resource-technique":[2294],"hf_cat_post":[623],"ppma_author":[590],"class_list":["post-51674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","resource-technique-gas-chromatography-gc"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":9,"label":"Blogs"}],"resource-technique":[{"value":2294,"label":"Gas Chromatography (GC)"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Brenda Cogan","author_link":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/author\/brenda-coganrestek-com\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":9,"name":"Blogs","slug":"blogs","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":442,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":9,"category_count":442,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Blogs","category_nicename":"blogs","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"authors":[{"term_id":590,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"jack-cochran","display_name":"Jack Cochran","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84412,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51674\/revisions\/84412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"industries-application","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industries-application?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"post-badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-badge?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"resource-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-type?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"product-library","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product-library?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"resource-technique","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/resource-technique?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"hf_cat_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hf_cat_post?post=51674"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discover.restek.com\/zh-hans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=51674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}