On the advantages of radially elongated structures in microchip-based liquid chromatography

We report on the possibility to realize submicrometer plate heights using chromatographic pillar array columns filled with radially elongated diamond-shaped pillars, even when using a relatively large interpillar distance (2.5 μm) and axial pillar width (5 μm). It is demonstrated that the use of high aspect ratio radially elongated pillars which are 15 times wider in the radial than in the axial direction can lead to a fivefold reduction of the minimal plate height compared to beds filled with pillars with a similar interpillar distance but with an aspect ratio around unity (cylinders and diamonds).This increase in performance can be attributed to a decrease in longitudinal dispersion, reflected by a reduction of the B-term by a factor of about 25. Experiments were conducted at room temperature, as well as at elevated temperature (70 °C), where the B-term band broadening is known to be more critical. The main advantage of radially elongated pillar beds is that they enable a drastic reduction of the footprint of pillar array columns, allowing design of very long channels with a minimum of turns. Under retained conditions, a four-component laser dye mixture could be separated over a distance of only 1.5 mm.