Stabilwax-DA

Stabilwax-DA column

Restek Stabilwax-DA GC Columns

Restek Stabilwax-DA GC columns are engineered for high-performance analysis of organic acids and other highly polar compounds that challenge traditional polyethylene glycol (PEG) phases. Featuring a deactivated acid-resistant PEG stationary phase, Stabilwax-DA delivers exceptional inertness for carboxylic acids, maintaining sharp peak shapes, accurate quantitation, and reproducible retention times even for reactive short-chain acids.

The column’s proprietary deactivation chemistry dramatically improves stability when analyzing acidic species such as formic, acetic, propionic, and butyric acids—compounds that often experience adsorption, tailing, or breakdown on less robust wax phases. Stabilwax-DA maintains peak symmetry across a wide range of concentrations, making it highly suitable for food and beverage quality testing, fermentation profiling, flavor chemistry, environmental analysis, industrial hygiene monitoring, and forensic workflows involving volatile fatty acids (VFAs).

Stabilwax-DA columns operate at elevated temperatures while preserving low bleed and stable baselines, making them well suited for GC-FID and GC-MS applications. Their strong resistance to acid-induced damage ensures long column lifetime and excellent lot-to-lot reproducibility—critical for validated or routine QA/QC methods.

Chrom Tech, as an authorized distributor of Restek products, offers Stabilwax-DA columns in multiple dimensions tailored for laboratories analyzing organic acids and highly polar compounds that demand exceptional inertness and phase stability.
Key Definitions ▸
Acid-Resistant PEG Phase
A specially treated polyethylene glycol stationary phase designed to withstand the corrosive nature of carboxylic acids, preserving column performance and peak shape.
Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs)
Short-chain organic acids such as acetic, propionic, and butyric acids commonly analyzed in food, fermentation, environmental, and forensic workflows. Stabilwax-DA is optimized for separating these.
Peak Tailing
A chromatographic distortion caused by analytes interacting with active sites on the column surface. Stabilwax-DA’s deactivation minimizes tailing for acidic analytes.
High-Temperature Wax Stability
The ability of a PEG-based column to maintain structural integrity and low bleed at elevated oven temperatures required to elute heavy acids and polar analytes.
Polar Compound Inertness
The minimized interaction between polar analytes and the stationary phase, resulting in sharper peaks, more accurate quantitation, and better reproducibility.
Frequently Asked Questions ▸
What types of compounds are Stabilwax-DA columns designed for?
Stabilwax-DA is optimized for organic acids and highly polar compounds that require a robust, acid-resistant stationary phase for accurate chromatographic performance.
Is Stabilwax-DA compatible with GC-MS?
Yes. Its low bleed and thermally stable PEG phase support high-sensitivity GC-MS detection of acidic analytes.
What benefits does the acid-resistant deactivation provide?
It minimizes peak tailing, extends column lifetime, and improves quantitation for carboxylic acids and other reactive polar compounds.
Which industries benefit most from Stabilwax-DA?
Food and beverage labs, fermentation facilities, environmental labs, industrial hygiene groups, and forensic laboratories frequently rely on Stabilwax-DA for accurate organic acid analysis.