Performance of the same column in supercritical fluid chromatography and in liquid chromatography

Abstract

We have studied the chromatographic behavior of the homologous series of alkylbenzenes (ranging from octylbenzene to octadecylbenzene) on the same C18 reversed-phase column in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) at various experimental conditions, such as different eluent compositions, flow-rates, and mobile phase densities. The first and the second moments of the peaks were used to estimate the overall mass-transfer processes in both chromatographic modes using the stochastic model of chromatography. The results confirm that in SFC - as the density of the mobile phase is influenced by the flow-rate - there is a broader variation of mass-transfer properties than in liquid chromatography. As expected, the optimum mobile phase velocity is higher in SFC, but there is no real difference in the minimum value of plate height, i.e. in the optimum efficiency.

Keywords: Mass transfer; Moment analysis; RPLC; SFC; Stochastic model.