Flash chromatography can be complex. Solvent choice, column size, stationary phase, loading technique, gradient method, flow rate, and detection parameters are all variables which factor into flash chromatography and your success with this purification technique. Of these variables, detection parameters, i.e. the type of detector, can really impact your flash chromatography results.

For many labs on a tight budget, keeping expenses at a minimum is crucial. Many of these same labs are also required to become more sustainable, or greener, by reducing the amount of organic solvent they use. Reducing solvent also reduces expenses, but what is the impact on lab productivity?

A fairly common question I receive is "how much of my reaction mixture can I load on my flash chromatography column?". To this question there is not a cut and dry answer because of a number of variables which influence the outcome. To help illustrate this, I will show in this post the results of a study I performed in my lab with one of my reaction mixtures.

Gradient or isocratic elution, that is the question. Within flash chromatography these are the options afforded to separate reaction mixtures and natural product extracts and is the focus of this post.

Normal-phase flash chromatography is an integral component of the organic synthesis workflow. Since reactions rarely generate 100% pure product, they need purification and flash chromatography is the most utilized tool for that task.

Reversed-phase flash chromatography use continues to increase for a variety of reasons. Unlike silica normal-phase flash columns, which typically are used only once, reversed-phase flash columns can be cleaned, stored, and reused. How many times can a column be reused is a frequent question I receive. In this post, I will do my best to answer this question.

As you know, reaction chemistry involves determining and selecting the right conditions for optimal product yield and purity. There are actually six variables, that I know of, needing consideration including…

Knowing when it is time to replace your reversed-phase flash column is a question I am asked frequently along with…

Flash chromatography is the most commonly used purification tool for organic and medicinal chemists whose reaction scales typically range from milligrams to grams. The column size to be used for the purification of these reaction mixtures is selected either by using the 1% rule which states that for many reaction mixtures, a crude reaction mixture load equaling 1% of the column’s media weight often will provide the needed purity, assuming the right elution method is selected. While this strategy can work, often chemists either overload or underload the selected column resulting in low product purity which requires re-purification. In both situations, the chemists wastes time, solvent, and the cost of the column.

For my purification blog I often will synthesize compounds so I can show representative, real-world reaction product purification. In doing so, I decided I would also post on the impact of various synthesis variable. This post looks at the impact of reaction temperature time on an amide synthesis.

Though this is a purification blog I do, from time to time, like to address synthetic chemistry experimentation findings in the desire to assist you with your reactions, as this is the front-end of your synthesis workflow. So, in this post, I report on some findings of the effect of reaction temperature on the synthesis of an amide, 2-amino-N-benzylbenzamide, a potential antibacterial compound[1].

This is a question I asked myself while I have been studying synthesis variables to see what, if any, impact each variable has on reaction product yield and purity. For this post, I evaluated the order in which I added reactants and solvent.

Chemical reactions gone wrong, I’m sure we all have experienced this issue, I know I have. You add your reagents in the proper amounts with a suitable solvent and perform your reaction only to find your by-product yield was greater than your product; by a lot. So, what do you do to isolate what little product you created with maximum yield and purity without breaking the proverbial bank on a big flash column and the solvent required for the purification?

Think of orthogonal flash chromatography as 2D-chromatography where a reaction mixture or natural product extract is purified first with one methodology or solvent gradient then re-purified with a different method or solvent pair in order to remove co-eluting impurities. This is a technique practiced in medicinal chemistry, especially for final compound purification, when the final product is purified first with normal-phase flash followed by reversed-phase prep HPLC.

There are two general flash chromatography techniques...

For most chemists purifying organic reaction mixtures, normal-phase flash chromatography is the go-to technique. Why not, it is quick, relatively efficient, and can provide relatively high loading capacities if the separation is properly optimized. However, most of these same chemists rely on only two sets of solvents to perform these purifications…