Progress in Technology of the Chromatographic Columns in HPLC

Abstract

Chromatographic column is an essential part of a any HPLC separation, and significant progress has been made in developing columns with better performance to provide better separation, a shorter separation time, resilience to a wider pH range of the mobile phase, longer lifetime, use of lower volumes of mobile phase, etc. All these characteristics were achieved by the introduction of novel technologies and improvements of the older ones. These include smaller particle used to fill the column, more homogeneous spherical particles, core-shell particles, monolithic columns, more pure silica as a stationary phase support, use of ethylene bridge silica, a wider variety of active phases, use of mixed mode stationary phases, use of polymers as stationary phase, use of various endcapping techniques, etc. Miniaturization and progress in the instrumentation played an important role for the chromatographic column development. All these aspects are summarized in the present chapter.