As I mentioned elsewhere, the key criteria are separation efficiency for the target compounds, stability and affordability (in any sense). Then, it is important that your column will allow you to achieve your goals with affordable and practical solvent system (MF) i.e. no acids, volatile or too toxic solvent components and/or exotic additives. For photosynthetic pigments and derivatives thereof, my favorites (all C18 RP) are Prontosil (Knauer), Lichrospher (Merck) and--yes--Zorbax. Waters Sunfire may be also of choice, If you are after preparetive separation, you could look for Knauer columns as well.

All these things depend upon your target compound as Alexei mentioned above.. I feel all columns show good performance if you have chosen the right one.. No matter you have Zorbax or any other.. In here we mostly use Waters columns and they best for their peoformance but recently we started using Zorbax column and they also perform good as well. So if you have any specific target compound to purify then it will be easier to narrow down which one you exactly need. In our lab, we mostly work on peptides and all C18 columns work very well.

Pjenomenex columns have also shown remarkable performances. So if you can specify you interest, I will be able to help you better.

Hope this helps.

Note that the pourcentage of carbon for RP C18 change from compagnies.

Hi,

I usually work with Tosoh columns. They are cost-effective and long-term column with good resolution. Think about use it.

Dear Matteo, thanks for your hint! But I have never heard about these columns here in Russia, I'm afraid we do not have a regional supplier dealing with this brand, anyway, I will do my best to find more information and, may be, buy them.

Dear Zakaria, I'm greatly appreciate you for sharing this useful information, I will draw my attention on this fact!

Dear Alexey, thanks for your wisdom advice! I will make a mental note for criteria you have listed above! But there are a huge amount of manufacturers and it makes me crazy ))

Roman, there is no real need to go crazy about it since:

1. For sure you can narrow down your choice of columns by literature search and external advice but will hardly pinpoint the very best one for you. It is a matter of trial and error, so just  choose one and go for it.

2. You do not marry a column once and for the rest of your life so you can try some other comlumns if you will not be satisfied with this or that.

P.S. We have some spare columns for this purpose e.g.. Waters Sunfire and even Zorbax ;)

ACE columns have never let me down. Last forever and have used them for a bunch of applications, including isomer separation of very hydrophobic compounds and separation of very polar compounds. I can't say enough good stuff about these columns!

http://www.ace-hplc.com/

"from personal preferences up to the ability to buy them as fast as possible" are good reasons to buy a column. In the past (>15 years ago) it might have been more important which manufacturer you choose. These days it hardly matters whether you choose Zorbax, Merck, Phenomenex, to name the brands mentioned here. 

I vote for Phenomenex as I've never been disappointed with their columns. I used Phenomenex columns for mycotoxin and sphingolipid base analyses. I chose Phenomenex  columns because my colleagues did, availability at the best price and they had a good distributor in my country (South Africa).

Phenomenex columns c18

It depends on possibilities to have in our country, Zorbax es really good, but sometimes to expensive as well as waters columns. We are using Phenomex and also varian columns.

Resnik and Makram sir is right.. columns are depend on which type of work you doing as well as availability of perticular column. normally we are using thermo and varian made columns.

Before choosing a brand for the HPLC columns I suggest you to visit the website or catalogue of different companies for your specific application and to evaluate which of them provides the best separation for your analytes. Zorbax is a good brand but not all the applications exhibit the best separations.

Choosing of column based on our target compound and cost. Now a days Waters introduced low cost column.

"Brand" names are not that important. Don't think of HPLC columns as being "Showdex", "Waters" or "Zorbax" columns. Those are just manufacturer names/labels. 90% of all HPLC columns sold are actually the same column support with a different company label on them (OEM Supplier or distributor). For example, Phenomenex is one of several companies who makes their living packing stationary phase, purchased in bulk from major suppliers, into their own columns with their own name and label on them. So you could purchase a column filled with Kromasil silica re-labeled as something else. Many other companies do the same thing and this is not a criticism, it is capitalism. So the same exact support will be sold under many different trade names.

The main differences between many of the common columns offered for sale today is in the choice of: particle size, pore volume (important to match to expected Mw), purity of the silica used (e.g. metal free and fully end-capped) carbon loading and the quality of the packing. How well the company packs the final column is really important because when it is done well, it results in excellent reproducibility between column batches. This is really important when you try and reproduce your method six months later on a new column! Otherwise, if you match up the physical specs of two "different" columns, you should expect to obtain similar results.

Since no single HPLC column will be applicable to all separations, try and put together an assortment of columns with different chemistries, pore sizes and other physical properties. These are what will provide you with wide selectivity.