The ZIC^®-HILIC column is the ideal choice for separation of polar and hydrophilic compounds as it is truly orthogonal to reversed phase chromatography (RPLC) columns.

Analytes such as amino acids, peptides, carbohydrates, plant extracts and various other polar compounds that usually have little or no retention and may be affected by wettability problems in RPLC, generally have strong retention on the ZIC^®-HILIC column.

The zwitterionic ZIC^®-HILIC stationary phase is attached to porous silica and is available in columns from capillary to preparative dimensions. The separation is achieved by a hydrophilic partitioning mechanism superimposed on weak electrostatic interactions. Typical eluents contain a high content of an organic solvent (e.g., acetonitrile) mixed with buffer, i.e., comparable to RPLC eluents, however, water being the strong solvent. Also, the low content of water in the eluents enables higher detection sensitivity in many LC/MS applications.