Zeba™ Spin Desalting Columns, 40K MWCO, 10 mL - FAQs

Zeba Spin Desalting columns are covered under our general 1-year warranty and are guaranteed to be fully functional for 12 months from the date of shipment, if stored as recommended. Please see section 8.1 of our Terms & Conditions of Sale (https://www.thermofisher.com/content/dam/LifeTech/Documents/PDFs/Terms-and-Conditions-of-Sale.pdf).

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.

Glycerol and sugars add viscosity to a sample, while detergents create micelles, making the removal of each difficult. Although dialysis is a better choice for removing these components, Zeba Columns can be used by modifying the desalting protocol. Modifications include diluting the samples, processing smaller samples, and adding the sample slowly to the column allowing it to enter the gel and equilibrate into the pores before centrifugation.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.

You can either reduce the volume of sample processed in each column (the product manual indicates the volume range recommended for each column size) or run the flow-through from one column over a fresh column.

Glycerol and sugars add viscosity to a sample, while detergents create micelles, making the removal of each difficult. Although dialysis is a better choice for removing these components, Zeba Columns can be used by modifying the desalting protocol. Modifications include diluting the samples, processing smaller samples, and adding the sample slowly to the column allowing it to enter the gel and equilibrate into the pores before centrifugation.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.

Centrifuged-based desalting results in minimal dilution. A slight dilution of the protein solution results if the optional stacker buffer is added that ensures maximum protein recovery.

When used properly, the volume recovered from the column equals the volume of sample (and buffer) added to the column.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.

Zeba columns are designed to be used once and discarded after use.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.

No, excess amounts of DyLight dyes (and any other planar molecule with multiple rings in their structure) “act” larger than their stated molecular weights in desalting columns. We do not recommend desalting, but refer researchers to our Pierce Dye Removal Columns (Cat. No. 22858) for this purpose.

Yes, the 7K Zeba columns have good recovery of dsDNA ladder down to 10 bp.

Yes, Zeba columns are compatible with most salts. The resin is stable to some organics. As organics may affect performance, we suggest using less than 10% organics.

A centrifuge is used to first remove the resin‘s void volume of liquid, followed by sample addition and centrifugation. After centrifugation, the macromolecules in the sample have moved through the column in approximately the same initial volume, but the small molecules have been forced into the pores of the resin and replaced by the buffer that was used to pre-equilibrate the gel-filtration matrix. Spin formats eliminate the need to wait for samples to emerge by gravity flow and require no chromatography system, allowing for multiple-sample processing simultaneously.

Note: The addition of larger volumes of buffer or longer centrifugation times than listed in the protocol will result in smaller molecules eventually emerging from the desalting column.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.

Desalting is the process where porous particles or beads are used to separate molecules of different sizes (known as gel filtration or size exclusion). Small molecules enter into the pores in the resin, resulting in a longer path length through the desalting column when compared to large molecules which pass in the space between the beads This increased path length for molecules below the MWCO allows the separation of small and large molecules.

Our desalting resins are rated by what MWCO molecules can pass through. They also have a lower MWCO (1K or 2K) that can be effectively separated from larger molecules. Molecules in between these values cannot be effectively separated from larger or smaller molecules, given our protocols.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Dialysis, Desalting, and Concentration Support Center.