High-Pressure Ion Exchange Chromatography as Applied to the Separation of Complex Biochemical Mixtures

Interest in liquid column chromatography, including ion exchange chromatography, as a separation method has increased markedly in the past few years. Numerous new automated analytical techniques, as well as applications for preparative or production-scale separations, have been developed. This has been particularly true in the areas pertaining to separation and analysis of biochemical mixtures such as physiologic fluids. The recent trend in ion exchange chromatography has been toward achieving two goals: high-resolution analysis in the case of complex mixtures, and high-speed separation when simpler mixtures are involved. In either case, the use of small-diameter ion exchange resin particles coupled with high flow rates (and, in some cases, long columns) requires operation at relatively high column inlet pressures, since the pressure drop through the ion exchange column is dependent on factors such as resin particle size, flow rate, and column length.