[MasterChief]

I have an aldehyde compound I need to run through a column. If I use MeOH (~4%) will I get some acetal as a side product?

[Dan]

I doubt it very much, at least not to an appreciable extent. If you could make acetals from aldehydes with just MeOH and silica, people would use it to make acetals when they wanted acetals. I may be wrong though. There is only one way to find out for sure with your aldehyde.

You could also consider alternative alcoholic eluents (e.g. IPA), or polar non-alcoholic eluents.

[mamid]

If your aldehyde doesn't contain other very polar groups like OH, COOH or NH₂, you probably can use non-alcohol-containing solvents for elution.

[zhangcarlin]

Very likely. a mixture of ethyl acetate and THF can replace your eluent, if you are using DCM/MeOH