One key analytical area where column
loadability is a major concern is drug
impurity profiling assays, where a large
amount of the main component must
be loaded onto the column in order to
increase the detectability of trace
contaminants. Typically it is necessary
to quantitate the impurities at the
0.05 - 0.1% level compared to the main
peak area. In this paper, we examine
the loadability of commercially
available sub 3 μm stationary phases,
and investigate the role that media
surface area has on loadability and how
this impacts impurity-profiling assays.