Small particle liquid chromatography selectivity

Modern high-performance liquid chromatography has been developed to a very high level of performance by the introduction of selective stationary phases of small particle sizes, resulting in efficient columns with large plate numbers per litre. 

In the first approximation, the column packed with small particles can be considered an array of capillaries. Hydrodynamic processes augment the exclusion based separation (see section 11.7.2, Retention Mechanisms and Accompanying Processes in SEC) and form the ground of a liquid chromatography-like method called hydrodynamic chromatography, HDC. HDC found application in separation of veiy large macromolecules, particles and dispersions. Its separation selectivity is rather low and it was partially substituted by the group of methods termed fieldflow fractionation (see seetion 11.3.3, Molar Mass Dispersity). 

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