SeQuant® HILIC HPLC Columns

SeQuant® HILIC (hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography) HPLC columns constitute a range of high-performance tools for separating polar hydrophilic compounds. All columns carry densely bonded, truly zwitterionic functional groups with a charge balance of 1:1. Separation is achieved by hydrophilic partitioning combined with weak ionic interactions for maximum selectivity, high loadability and easy optimization of methods.

Thanks to their favorable retention and robust performance, SeQuant® HILIC columns have become extremely popular in numerous laboratories around the world. For example has US FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) recommended SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC for analysis of melamine and related substances. SeQuant® HILIC columns excel in stability and low bleed. These features make them particularly suitable for LC-MS applications where high background can lead to signal suppression and interference with quantitative measurements while also increasing instrument wear. Their high stability makes these high-performance HILIC columns also attractive for traditional HPLC applications.

What is HILIC?

HILIC stands for hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography. The technique combines the benefits of aqueous mobile phases, like reversed-phase HPLC, with separation based on normal phase principles. As a result, more polar compounds respond with higher retention resulting in more efficient separation. This makes HILIC the method of choice for separating charged and neutral hydrophilic compounds, such as acids, bases, ions, peptides, metabolites and sugars, which are very difficult to separate using reversed-phase HPLC. The HILIC HPLC separation technique also offers greater flexibility when analyzing polar hydrophilic compounds, as it is easy to combine with a wide range of detection techniques. What’s more, HILIC boasts improved sensitivity with some of these techniques, such as electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS).

Visit the HILIC Technology Tutorial

Application Examples Using SeQuant® HILIC Columns

SeQuant® HILIC Product Range

Merck offers a comprehensive range of high-quality SeQuant® HILIC HPLC columns for the separation of polar hydrophilic compounds. Every SeQuant® HILIC HPLC separation column by Merck Millipore is individually tested and delivered with a certificate documenting its performance.

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ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-pHILIC
ZIC®-cHILIC

Technical Support for SeQuant® HILIC Columns

Merck offers several technical support services to help you achieve optimal separations and reliable analytical results with SeQuant® HILIC products.

SeQuant® FAQ list
Detailed instructions

SeQuant® column	Functional group	Features	Base particle	Particle size	Pore size	Column types
SeQuant®  ZIC® -HILIC	Sulfobetaine	High-performance selectivity and robustness	silica	3.5 µm, 5 µm	100 Å, 200 Å	analytical, capillary, semi-prep, guards
SeQuant® ZIC® -cHILIC	Phosphory- lcholine	Complementary selectivity with favorable LC-MS performance	silica	3 µm	100 Å	analytical, capillary, guards
SeQuant® ZIC® -pHILIC	Sulfobetaine	High pH-stability and low noise with ion  detectors	polymer	5 µm		analytical, guards