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Dry Column Vacuum Chromatography

Beaker984

New member
One tool I use in my refinements from time to time is known as Dry Column Vacuum Chromatography (DCVC). This style of chromatography can resolve different compounds better than TLC in some cases. The technique involves a constant solvent gradient which is vacuumed through the silica gel one test tube at a time until the gel is dry(ish). This is a departure from standard chromatography in which the column is never run dry and lends itself well to higher volume runs. The solvent starts as pure hexane which hardly budges THC but does move other components. Each test tube then added is added with a 5% polar solvent increase from the previous fraction by adding the ethyl acetate to the hexane and at about 10-15% EA to hexane the cannabinoid fraction (shown about to elute) moves nicely along.

I use this technique mostly now to discover compounds hidden in the concentrate but on its own DCVC is perfectly suited as a single method refinement technique capable of very high purities. I use standard phase silica gel 60 as the stationary phase and Ethyl Acetate/Hexane as the mobile phase.
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