A filter for a chromatography system includes a filter body with an outside wall, a cavity, an inner wall surrounding the cavity and a channel extending between the exterior and interior walls. The station passes a stream of a liquid from the cavity. The filter body is formed of a sintered metal oxide material and has a pore size which is under a particle dimension to be filtered liquid. In certain embodiments the filter body is made up of zirconium oxide or aluminum oxide. The filters reduce or remove the types of reactions which occur between conventional filter bodies and chromatographic solvents and samples. The filters may be used at several places within an chromatography system to remove particles which may be present in sources of chromatographic solvents or introduced to the chromatographic system stream by chromatographic components, such as valves, pumps and other chromatographic system components.

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BACKGROUND

 
Particulates can be present in fluid flows like the leaks in a liquid chromatography system. The particulates may exist in the solvents used for your cellular phase or might be generated inside the machine by surfaces that move against each other. By way of instance, internal pump parts and solvent selector components can create particulates through operation. Conventional chromatography systems sometimes utilize sintered metal filters, polymer filters and glass filters to remove particulates fromthe liquid flow. By way of instance, such filters could be utilized to purify one or more solvents used to get a cellular phase by removing particulates at the source of the solvent. These filters may also be used at the inlet or outlet of clean solvent pumps and othersystem pumps, and might be used to filter out a sample for injection into the mobile phase. In addition, these filters are commonly provided at the inlet and outlet of a chromatographic column to keep sorbent particles within the column whilst also removingparticulates that may be present in the flow to the column.
 

 
Traditional filters such as polymer filters, sintered metal filters and glass filters may significantly respond with the solvents employed by the chromatography system. In addition, such filters can respond with a chromatographic sample. Theseinteractions can lessen the sensitivity or degrade the chromatographic separation information for the liquid chromatography system. For instance, glass and metal filters may enter solution with certain solvents and potentially precipitate downstreamin the fluid path. Dissolved glass and metal compounds can combine with sample chemicals, leading to changes to the physical properties of the sample chemicals. These changes can alter the separation of the chemicals and negatively affect the abilityto detect and measure the chemicals. For mass spectrometry analysis, the mass of chemicals might be altered through interactions with all the filter material, resulting in degradation of their mass spectrometry without the understanding of the user. Other forms offilters, such as plastic blockers and the additives used in plastic blockers, may solubilize into certain cellular phases and make compounds that interfere with or complicate the identification and quantitation of the analyte compounds.
 

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