SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns for Polar Hydrophilic Compounds from Supelco (Merck)

SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns are columns designed for separating polar hydrophilic compounds under HILIC conditions. They provide exceptional reproducibility, robustness, and selectivity. This page highlights their key features, benefits, and application examples, demonstrating how these columns address demanding analytical challenges in proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics.

Benefits of SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns

• High-performance separations for polar hydrophilic compounds: Delivers reliable separation of challenging polar analytes in both HPLC and LC-MS workflows, including applications in proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics.
• Reproducible retention across analyses: The zwitterionic stationary phase ensures consistent retention behavior, reducing method variability and supporting reliable results across runs.
• Two complementary phase chemistries: Offers the flexibility to select the most appropriate selectivity for a given application, with ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC providing distinct yet complementary retention profiles.
• Maximum LC-MS compatibility: Low column bleed minimizes background noise in mass spectrometry detection, enabling cleaner spectra and more confident compound identification.
• Excellent reproducibility and robustness: Consistent column-to-column and run-to-run performance supports long-term method reliability in demanding laboratory environments.
• Solvent consumption in capillary formats: In the nucleoside application example, using a narrower I.D. column (from 2.1 mm to 1.0 mm) reduced acetonitrile consumption by a factor of 4.75 in the shown separation example.

Features of SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns

• Zwitterionic functional groups with 1:1 charge balance: Both columns carry densely bonded zwitterionic functional groups that maintain an equal positive and negative charge, enabling separation through a combination of hydrophilic partitioning and weak ionic interactions.
• Sulfobetaine phase chemistry (ZIC®-HILIC): ZIC®-HILIC is built on a sulfobetaine zwitterionic phase, providing high-performance selectivity and robustness under HILIC conditions and classified under USP L114.
• Phosphorylcholine phase chemistry (ZIC®-cHILIC): ZIC®-cHILIC employs a phosphorylcholine zwitterionic phase, offering complementary selectivity with favorable LC-MS performance relative to ZIC®-HILIC.
• Type B high-purity silica base: Both columns are constructed on Type B high-purity silica.
• Fully porous particle (FPP) platform: Both ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC use fully porous particles (FPP).
• Modernized glass-lined capillary column hardware: Both columns are housed in updated glass-lined capillary hardware, enhancing their suitability for separating a broad range of hydrophilic bio-related molecules including phosphorylated compounds and peptides.
• Improved packing procedure: An enhanced column packing process is incorporated into the new capillary column format, providing superior reproducibility and stability compared to existing capillary columns.

Technical Specifications of SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns

Applications of SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns

• Separation of Polar Hydrophilic Compounds in OMICs Research: Both columns are designed to separate a broad range of hydrophilic bio-related molecules, including phosphorylated compounds and peptides, making them well-suited for applications in OMICs fields such as proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics.
• Nucleoside Separation Example: In this application example, ZIC®-cHILIC capillary columns are used for the separation of five polar nucleosides: thymidine, uridine, cytidine, 5-methyluridine, and 2-deoxycytidine. By using a narrow column I.D. (from 2.1 mm to 1.0 mm), solvent consumption dropped significantly by a factor of 4.75 in the shown separation example while maintaining the same separation pattern. Additionally, the use of a short 50 mm column reduces the analysis time from 15 minutes to 5 minutes.
• LC-MS/MS Characterization of Trypsin-Cleaved Proteins: This example shows ZIC®-HILIC capillary columns serving as a complement to reversed-phase LC (RPLC) in 2D-LC setups for peptide mapping and protein identification, selectively retaining hydrophilic peptides and enhancing resolution for polar modifications in protein digests such as BSA tryptic digests analyzed by TOF-MS.

SeQuant® ZIC®-HILIC and ZIC®-cHILIC Capillary Columns Selected Configurations

Selected configurations include:

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