High Performance (High Pressure) Layer Electrochromatography Separation Technique: Equipment and Preliminary Results

We present a new prototype device and propose a new analytical technique: high performance (high pressure) layer electrochromatography (HPLEC). The equipment provides a combination of overpressured layer chromatography (OPLC) and pressurized planar electrochromatography (PPEC), yet it still enables researchers to perform each of these analyses separately. In comparison to PPEC, HPLEC provides hydrodynamic flow of the mobile phase, irrespective of the voltage used and the mobile phase composition. The advantages of HPLEC over OPLC include the possibility of the use of the electrophoretic effect to influence the selectivity of separation and the use of the electroosmotic effect to facilitate the mobile phase flow in order to decrease backpressure and increase the flow velocity. Many operational parameters can be freely adjusted and optimized independently. The equipment is fully automated and can work in various separation/operational modes, including combinations of online/offline sample application and detection. We present preliminary results of simultaneous, fully online, multichannel HPLEC separation of analgesic drugs (including acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and tramadol) as an example of increasing analysis throughput.