Efficiency supercritical fluid chromatography

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) refers to the use of mobile phases at temperatures and pressures above the critical point (supercritical) or just below (sub-critical). SFC shows several features that can be advantageous for its application to large-scale separations [132-135]. One of the most interesting properties of this technique is the low viscosity of the solvents used that, combined with high diffusion coefficients for solutes, leads to a higher efficiency and a shorter analysis time than in HPLC. 

INFLUENCE OF COLUMN INTERNAL DIAMETER ON EFFICIENCY AMD SEPARATION TIME FOR OPEN TUBUALR COLUMN SUPERCRITICAL FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY. 

In analytical chemistry there is an ever-increasing demand for rapid, sensitive, low-cost, and selective detection methods. When POCL has been employed as a detection method in combination with separation techniques, it has been shown to meet many of these requirements. Since 1977, when the first application dealing with detection of fluorophores was published [60], numerous articles have appeared in the literature [6-8], However, significant problems are still encountered with derivatization reactions, as outlined earlier. Consequently, improvements in the efficiency of labeling reactions will ultimately lead to significant improvements in the detection of these analytes by the POCL reaction. A promising trend is to apply this sensitive chemistry in other techniques, e.g., in supercritical fluid chromatography [186] and capillary electrophoresis [56-59], An alter-... 

Finally, supercritical fluid chromatography, in which a supercritical fluid is used as the mobile phase, was introduced by Klesper [164-166]. SFE directly coupled to SFC provides an extremely powerful analytical tool. The efficient, fast and selective extraction capabilities of supercritical fluids allows quantitative extraction and direct transfer of the selected solutes of interest to be accomplished to the column, often without the need for further sample treatment or cleanup. Extraction selectivity is usually achieved by adjusting the pressure of the supercritical fluid at constant temperature or, less often, by changing the temperature of the supercritical fluid at constant pressure. SFE coupled with packed column SFC has found... 

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is an intermediate chromatographic technique between GC and HPLC. It depends upon the fact that when a fluid becomes supercritical (both the temperature and pressure are at or above its critical point) it develops some of the solvating properties of a liquid whilst retaining the low viscosity of a gas. Hence, mass transfer (essential to efficient chromatography) is more akin to that of GC than HPLC, but many compounds can be chromatographed at temperatures much lower than what would be required by GC, so some thermally labile compounds are amenable to SFC where they would degrade under GC conditions [28]. 

The use of supercritical fluid chromatography for carotene separation has been examined and optimized, especially in regard to temperature, pressure, and organic modifiers in the supercritical fluid (71). With an RP column it was possible to resolve an a-carotene-cis isomer from an all-trans carotene as well as two cis isomers of /3-carotene from an all-trans /3-carotene. As with HPLC, only polymeric C,8 columns were able to resolve the cis isomers of a- and /3-carotene from the all-trans isomers. Supercritical fluid chromatography offers the advantage not only of an efficient separation but also of fast analysis. Indeed, the use of SFC with ODS-based columns for the analysis of carotenoid pigments affords a threefold reduction of analysis time compared to HPLC (72). The elution order of carotenoids and their cis isomers was found to be the same as in RP-HPLC. The selectivity of the system could further be increased by adding modifiers (e.g.,... 

H. Daimon and Y. Hirata, Trapping efficiency and solute focusing in on-hne supercritical fluid extraction/capillary supercritical fluid chromatography , J. Microcolumn Sep. 5 531-535(1993). 

While supercritical fluid chromatography seems to have a controversial benefit, supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a technique used world-wide and plays an important role in many industrial processes, such as the decaffei-nation of coffee. Due to the high information content of NMR spectroscopy, the hyphenation of SFE with NMR spectroscopy promises a deep insight into the extraction process itself, thus leading to a better understanding and development of more efficient extractions. 

Supercritical fluid chromatography offers high selectivity and efficiency. Method development is faster and easier than HPLC. The future of SFC lies in the use of both capillary and packed columns. Although capillary... 

S. Fields, R. Kong, et al., Effect of column diameter on efficiency in capillary supercritical fluid chromatography, HRC CC J. High Res. Chromotogr. Chromatogr. Commun., 7 312-318 (1984). 

Steuer et al. compared supercritical fluid chromatography with capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for its application in pharmaceutical analysis [24]. Efficiency, performance, sensitivity, optimization, sample preparation, ease of method development, technical capabilities, and orthogonality of the information were the parameters studied. They concluded that SFC is ideal for moderately polar compounds, such as excipients, for which mass detection is required. 

Another emerging technology is supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) that uses supercritical carbon dioxide as the apolar eluent [46]. The main advantage of SFC, which can be applied both in the analytical and in the purification area, is the higher resolution than the traditional HPLC, allowing time reduction and more efficient separations. Also this technique can be advantageously coupled with a MS detector, to further improve the full analytical process. 

Sub-/supercritical fluid chromatography is essentially NP chromatography with the added advantage that the lower viscosity and higher diffusivity of the mobile phase results in higher column efficiencies allowing for rapid resolutions. The columns employed are the same as those utilized in conventional NP chromatography. Carbon dioxide is the most commonly used nonpolar eluent but requires a more polar modifier such as an alcohol for the elution of polar solutes. The modifier increases the polarity of the mobile phase and... 

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