Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Collumn Chromotography

NEMO-Chemistry - 30-6-2016 at 12:21

Will cleaned ball milled sand work in a chromatography column? The real stuff seems expensive, so i was wondering if i ball milled sand that had been cleaned would it give decent separations?

I understand the risks of fine sand powder but i intend to use it wetted with solvent before handling it.

Tried cat litter but it seems only the clay type is around here or the stuff with blue bits in. Would the clay one work if ball milled?

I dont want to try it out without asking because i dont have a large sample, and the sample i do have to separate took alot of work to get.

Thanks

Metacelsus - 30-6-2016 at 15:01

Likely not. Particle size uniformity is quite important for good performance. Also there's the fact that sand and silica gel are two very different things, on a structural level. Silica gel has high specific surface area; sand doesn't.

You might be able to get silica; read this: http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=50892

[Edited on 6-30-2016 by Metacelsus]

NEMO-Chemistry - 1-7-2016 at 05:07

Quote: Originally posted by Metacelsus  
Likely not. Particle size uniformity is quite important for good performance. Also there's the fact that sand and silica gel are two very different things, on a structural level. Silica gel has high specific surface area; sand doesn't.

You might be able to get silica; read this: http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=50892

[Edited on 6-30-2016 by Metacelsus]

Thx its got to be worth a try, i am in UK but they might do samples here.

Someone else mentioned the silica in the keep stuff dry packets.

Finally got a powerful fan, so will start on my fume hood Sunday. No good for flammable stuff as the fumes will pass over the fan, but fine for most what i need.

Thinking about it i have some food dyes, i might try out different column materials see how they perform.

I am not expecting miracles but the price of silica for columns is :o

careysub - 1-7-2016 at 11:08

I wonder if Daraclear, amorphous silica for beer fining would work. Average particle size 19 microns.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100g-of-Powdered-Silica-gel-for-Beer...

NEMO-Chemistry - 1-7-2016 at 11:18

Quote: Originally posted by careysub  
I wonder if Daraclear, amorphous silica for beer fining would work. Average particle size 19 microns.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/100g-of-Powdered-Silica-gel-for-Beer...


Thats interesting, its likely to be something available in the UK as well.
I will have a look around monday when in town, I have 6 weeks of free time! LOADS of chemistry stuff i want to get done. Especially sorting out my copper nitrate that seemed to go very wrong :(