Wide extra-column dispersion

The standard deviation of the extra-column dispersion is given as opposed to the variance because, as it represents one-quarter of the peak width, it is easier to visualize from a practical point of view. It is seen the values vary widely with the type of column that is used, (ag) values for GC capillary columns range from about 12 pi for a relatively short, wide, macrobore column to 1.1 pi for a long, narrow, high efficiency column. 

It is seen that the optimum column radius for an open tubular column varies widely with inlet pressure arid the difficulty of the separation. Considering a separation of some difficulty, for example ( a = 1.02), it is seen that at an inlet pressure of lOOOp.s.f, the optimum column diameter would be about 4 micron whereas, at an inlet pressure of only 1 psi, it would be about 43 micron. The former would be quite difficult to coat with stationary phase and would demand detectors and injection systems of almost impossibly low dispersion A column of 43 micron in diameter, on the other hand, would be piactical from the point of view of both ease of coating and an acceptable system extra column dispersion. However, the lengths of such columns arid the resulting analysis times remains to be determined and may preclude their- use. 

In contrast, the use of wide-bore capillary columns allows a considerably larger extra-column dispersion. Consequently, these columns may readily be used in instruments that are compatible with conventional capillary columns. Moreover, they may be used instead of packed columns to yield greatly increased plate numbers without the requirement of major modifications to the instrument. One of the major reasons for the popularity of wide-bore capillary columns may therefore be their role as intermediates in the gradual replacement of packed columns by capillary columns in GC. 

It is clear from table 7.2 that in terms of extra-column dispersion a wide-bore capillary column requires instrumentation similar to that used for the packed column. However, the capillary column provides eight times as many plates (in a fifteen-fold analysis time). Conventional capillary columns require a reduction in the dispersion by about an order of magnitude, whereas narrow-bore columns require a further reduction by a factor of about 100. This, combined with the high pressures required, puts narrow-bore columns out of reach for current GC instruments. 

In GC the use of wide-bore" capillary columns allows the use of instruments designed to accommodate packed columns (in terms of extra-column dispersion). For capillary columns of conventional diameter a reduction of the extra-column dispersion by a factor of /0, and for narrow bore columns a reduction by a factor of 1000, are required. 

The main disadvantage of size-exclusion chromatography is its low peak capacity, which arises from the small elution volumes of the peaks. In addition because peak dispersion is small, extra-column contributions to band broadening in size-exclusion chromatography have to be kept to a minimum. The relative contribution of extra-column band broadening can be minimized by the use of small particles = 3-10 pm) and long (L = 50 100 cm), wide-bore (d = 8-10 mm) columns. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ , ]

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