Less Configuration and More Dimensionality: Preparative Heart-Cut Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography Based on...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Chromatography
• Natural Product Chemistry

Background:

• Multiple-dimensional liquid chromatography (mD-LC) offers multiplicative resolving power by adding separation dimensions.
• Increasing dimensionality in preparative mD-LC systems typically leads to complex configurations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel, simplified configuration for preparative mD-LC systems.
• To demonstrate the capability of achieving higher dimensionality with reduced system complexity.

Main Methods:

• Developed a preparative mD-LC system utilizing a single set of LC modules and trapping array-based multiple heart-cut interfaces.
• Employed a sequential fraction storage and allocation process between the interface and LC modules for nD separation.
• Validated the system with preparative two-dimensional LC (2D-LC) and three-dimensional LC (3D-LC) separations of herbal medicine formulations.

Main Results:

• Achieved a preparative 2D-LC separation of herbal medicine, isolating 40 compounds with >90% purity.
• Demonstrated variable dimensionality in LC separations through the iterative process.
• Successfully performed preparative 3D-LC, validating the principle of "less configuration and more dimensionality".

Conclusions:

• The developed preparative mD-LC system offers exceptional power for compound isolation.
• This approach has significant potential for the analysis and purification of natural products.
• The simplified configuration allows for exploration of higher-dimensional preparative separations.