The current revolution in column technology: how it began, where is it going?

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Chromatography
• Separation Science

Background:

• Traditional chromatographic columns using 5-10 μm fully porous particles dominated for decades.
• A rapid evolution in column technology occurred between 2000 and 2006.
• This includes the rise and fall of monolithic silica rods and the development of sub-3 μm particles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the rapid evolution of chromatographic column technology over the past decade.
• To highlight the significant progress in analytical speed and resolution power.
• To discuss future directions for accelerating separations while maintaining efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of advancements in particle technology: fully porous and superficially porous particles.
• Evaluation of performance improvements in terms of analysis time and plate height.
• Assessment of modern high-pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC) instrument capabilities and limitations.

Main Results:

• Analysis times and plate heights have improved by over an order of magnitude.
• Modern instruments with sub-3 μm shell particles achieve high peak capacities (40 peaks in 15s) for small molecules.
• Current HPLC systems have limitations in extra-column band broadening and data acquisition rates.

Conclusions:

• The pace of chromatographic column development has rendered older LC instrument designs obsolete.
• Future separations may involve packing columns with even smaller particles (down to 1 μm) or using novel materials.
• Development of new ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) systems is needed for future advancements.