Effect of axial temperature gradient on chromatographic efficiency under adiabatic conditions

The effect of axial temperature gradient on the chromatographic efficiency was studied under adiabatic conditions by a modeling approach. The equilibrium-dispersive model of chromatography was used for the calculations. The model was extended by taking into account the axial temperature gradient. The results show that due to the temperature gradient, there are retention and migration velocity gradients in the column. Since the retention factor, k, is not constant in the column, k cannot be calculated as the ratio of net retention and hold-up times. As a result of the gradual increase of migration velocity, the retention times of solutes decrease as the slope of temperature gradient increases. In addition, the band in the column have extra broadening due to larger migration velocity of the front of band. The width of bands becomes larger at larger change of temperature. In the same time, however, the release velocity of the compounds from the column is increasing as ΔT increases. Accordingly, an apparent peak compression effect makes the peaks thinner. As a result of the two counteracting effects (peak expansion, apparent peak compression) the column efficiency does not change significantly in case of axial temperature gradient under adiabatic conditions. The resolutions, however, decrease slightly due to the decrease of retention times.