[Babcock_Hall]

For a given volume of silica, is it better to have a tall, narrow column or a broad, short column.  My first guess would be tall and narrow, but I am not sure.  In gel filtration (size exclusion) chromatography of proteins, tall and narrow is better.  In ion-exchange chromatography of proteins, short and broad generally gives better resolution.  In ion-exchange chromatography one typically uses a gradient of NaCl, and therein may lie the difference between how they respond to column dimensions.  This question came up recently in our purification of a thiol, as discussed in a companion thread.

[rolnor]

I have the impression that a long time ago, the tall-narow was more popular. I often worked in the 100mg-1g scale and purified a lot on a column that was ca 10-30cm long and 3 cm wide, the glass column was a lot longer, but I rarely packed it full.