Abstract: A chromatography column suitable for small-scale laboratory use as a column tube resembling that of a syringe and a movable plunger which slides in the column tube. End filter arrangements are mounted by direct integration, e.g. melt-bonding of glass, into these components. A tubular stem providing an internal flow conduit to the end filter arrangement at the front end of the plunger is also integrally bonded behind the permeable filter portion. By making all of these operational components out of a formable, melt-bondable material, preferably glass which can also make sliding seals with itself, the resulting chromatography column is simple to use and unlikely to leak by comparison with conventional laboratory columns which use many discrete components.

Abstract: A method for treating silica to render its surface non-polar, especially for use as a chromatography medium in "reverse phase" chromatography. The silica is treated with a solution of a complex in which a hydrocarbon chain is coordinated, e.g. through a carboxylic group, with a metal ion such as chromium. The complex also has halide ligands, which on hydrolysis give rise to cationic charging and hydroxyl-bridging of the complex molecules with the silica surface and with one another. Elimination of water binds the molecules onto the silica surface where their hydrocarbon chains give the desired non-polar properties.