Packing your own columns for capillary and nano LC is very common in the research community but has a number of disadvantages over commercially packed columns. In a lab it is harder to get the columns reproducible due the variation in bed height, the manufacture of the frits and the fact that fused silica capillaries are fragile. Packing your own columns also require a pressurised packing bomb and a high pressure gas supply.

We have developed a column packing kit where the fused silica capillaries are replaced by PEEKsil, a PEEK coated fused silica capillary. Columns with the desired ID and length are butt connected to connection capillaries with integrated low-volume screens and slurry packed using the HPLC pump as the packing solvent delivery system. The resulting columns have a precise bed height, are more robust than fused silica columns and can be reversed for column cleaning purposes. Independent test have also shown them to be equal in performance or superior to commercially available columns.