In addition to stainless steel hardware (which is the standard), there are other materials that can be used as hardware material. This is particularly necessary for various bio-applications. Some biomolecules can interact with the stainless steel wall of the HPLC column and thus negatively influence the recovery. One way to minimise this is to passivate the stainless steel surface or to create an inert barrier between the stainless steel and the sample. This is referred to as inert stainless steel.
Other materials, such as PEEK, also offer other possibilities for inert column hardware. The column can either consist entirely of PEEK (disadvantage: lower pressure tolerance) or the PEEK is applied to the inside of a stainless steel column (PEEK-lined stainless steel). The PEEK-lined stainless steel combines the inert PEEK surface with the pressure tolerance of the stainless steel.
This inert hardware is often offered under different names by different manufacturers. Terms such as bioinert, biocompatible, metal-free or similar expressions are used. What all terms have in common is that the sample does not come into contact with metal.