Chromatography on water-ice

Ice contains a thin film of water on its surface, the thickness ranging from nanometer to micrometer levels, depending on the bulk temperature and the composition of the solution used in making the ice. It follows that water held on the surface of an ice particle should endow a column packed with microparticulate ice the properties of a chromatographic column containing a pellicular packing. We demonstrate here the normal phase separation of two dyes on a column packed with millimeter-size ice particles, held at -18 °C.