Computational fluid dynamics study of potential solutions to alleviate viscous heating band broadening in 2.1 millimeter liquid chromatography columns.
J Chromatogr A 2021;
1654:462452. [PMID:
34392122 DOI:
10.1016/j.chroma.2021.462452]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2021] [Revised: 08/03/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
We report on a numerical simulation study of a number of potential column technology solutions to minimize the plate height contribution (Hvh) originating from the use of ultra-high pressures and their concomitant viscous heating effect. Looking as far as possible into the future of UHPLC, all main results are obtained for the case of a 2500 bar pressure gradient. However, to generalize the result, a correlation is given that can be used to interpolate the results to lower pressures with some 10% accuracy. For the considered case of a 2.1mm column, a liquid flow rate of 0.45 ml/min, an analyte with retention factor k(25°C)=3 and a retention enthalpy chosen such that ΔHR/R= -1000 K, it is found that, in order to keep the global plate height as measured at the column outlet (Hvh,glob,out) below 1 μm, the bed conductivity would need to be raised to λbed=2.4 W/m•K, i.e., 4 times higher than a typical packed bed of fully-porous or core-shell silica particles. An equivalent effect on the band broadening could be obtained if it would be possible to replace the steel column wall with a low conductivity material. In this case, a wall conductivity of 0.25 W/m•K, i.e., 64 times smaller than the conductivity of steel, would be needed to keep Hvh,glob,out below 1 μm. Results are also interpreted based on contour plots of the axial and radial velocity variation of a retained analyte.
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