Preparative separations in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) involve the injection of large volumes of the solute. In SFC, the mobile phase is typically high pressure CO2+modifier and the solute to be injected is usually dissolved in the modifier. Two-types of injection methods, modifier-stream and mixed-stream, are common in commercial preparative SFC systems. In modifier-stream injection, the injection is made in the modifier stream which is later mixed with the CO2 stream, while in the mixed-stream injection, the injection is made in a mixed CO2+modifier stream. In this work a systematic experimental and modelling study of the two techniques is reported using single-enantiomers of flurbiprofen on Chiralpak AD-H with CO2+methanol as the mobile phase. While modifier-stream injection shows non-distorted peaks, mixed-stream injection results in severe peak-distortion. By comparing the modelling and experimental results, it is shown that the modifier "plug" introduced in the mixed-stream injection is the primary cause of the peak distortions. The experimental results also point to the possible existence of viscous fingering which contributes to further peak distortion.
Keywords: Carbon dioxide; Injection; Modeling; Supercritical fluid chromatography; Viscous fingering.
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