From February 26th to 28th, 5 SilcoTek team members will be attending the 75th Pittcon Conference and Exposition at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA. Keep an eye out for these friendly faces: 

What is Pittcon?

Pittcon is an annual exposition that is self-described as "a dynamic, international conference and exposition on laboratory science, a venue for presenting the latest advances in analytical research and scientific instrumentation, and a platform for continuing education and science-enhancing opportunity. Pittcon is for anyone who develops, buys, or sells laboratory equipment, performs physical or chemical analyses, develops analysis methods, or manages these scientists" (Pittcon, 2024). 

SilcoTek Facilitates a Symposium on Surface Modifications and Coatings in Chromatography

SilcoTek^® is facilitating a symposium on Wednesday, Feb 28th on Surface Modifications and Coatings in Chromatography! Dr. Jesse Bischof will lead discussions on how wetted flow paths of modern day chromatography equipment must withstand an ever-growing list of corrosive solvents and environments while not interacting with analytes to provide low detection limits. Many technologies have been developed to address this challenge including new metal alloys, polymers, exotic materials, coatings (some plastic and others ceramic), and complete system redesigns to limit any deleterious non-specific binding to the flow path. We have gathered a group of scientist to discuss how flow paths modified with chemical vapor-deposited coatings can allow gas and liquid chromatographers to push analytical boundaries and enable what was previously thought to be impossible. We will start with SilcoTek's Clay Smith speaking on CVD Coatings in Chromatographic Devices: a Short History. Then, Helen Martin of Markes International discusses thermal desorption and how modified steel surfaces provide an inert environment for applications from breath biopsies to hydrogen fuel analysis. We then move to Seth Lyman, Director of the Bingham Research Center at Utah State, who will discuss air quality and environmental analysis done via GC. He will present on some of the innovative environmental analyses that are performed utilizing a steel system that has been modified with a silicon coating. Finally, Diego Lopez of Restek Corporation will discuss new uses for coated hardware in liquid chromatography, focusing on cannabis and mushroom alkaloid analysis. 

Technical Talk on Metal Ion Leaching

Earlier in the day, Dr. Bischof will also be presenting "Metal Ion Leaching From Stainless Steel and Hastelloy in Common Pharmaceutical Solvents and the Impacts on Production and Analysis." Jesse will discuss how metal ions can cause issues in pharmaceutical production if they are too high or too low. Many studies have shown that ppb levels variation in iron, chromium, nickel, and manganese can all drastically impact pharmaceutical production, both upstream such as fermentation yields and downstream such as product oxidation, aggregation, denaturation, and other forms of degradation. Raw material suppliers work hard to keep metal levels in tight windows to not impact formulations, but then these materials are stored, distributed, and processed in stainless steel and/or hastelloy components. While steel and hastelloy are used due to their corrosion resistance, they are still alloys made of iron, chromium, nickel, and other elements and can leach these elements into solution at trace levels and cause problems. Little work has been published to quantify the Metal Ion leaching in various pharmaceutically relevant solvents from stainless steel and hastelloy alloys. Here, Jesse will present metal ion leaching data via ICP-MS along with a method to mitigate this metal ion leaching in the form of nano CVD silicon-based coating to block metal ion leaching into the solvent. Solvents will include water, methanol, and acetonitrile, both in their pure forms as well as in solution with citric acid, acetic acid, Tris HCl, Perchlorate salts, Guanadine HCl, Phosphoric acid, and potentially other relevant solutions. Results will show that by applying the coating to tubing, valves, filters, tanks, and any other metal processing equipment, metal ions can be limited to sub-ppb levels of leaching providing greater control over pharmaceutical processes.

Advancements in HPLC 

SilcoTek's Dursan^® and Siltride^® coatings are used in HPLC applications due to their ability to optimize the surface properties of critical parts in the flow path. With Dursan being a hydrophobic surface and Siltride providing a hydrophilic surface, there are many applications where SilcoTek coatings would be beneficial. Siltride is our most hydrophilic surface, emerging as the best inert solution for size exclusion chromatography (SEC). For more information, please check out Luke's LinkedIn post on SilcoTek's Pittcon activities this year. 

Visit SilcoTek in booth #2427!

Can't make it to Pittcon 2024, but want to talk about how SilcoTek can help in your application? Contact our coating experts! 

Home. Pittcon Conference + Expo. (2024, February 3). https://pittcon.org/