Factors determining flow rate in chromatographic columns

Summary It is shown that the flow in chromatography is nearly always laminar in nature. Starting from the Darcy equation, expressions are given for the flow rate in both gas and liquid chromatography columns. The concepts of specific permeability, chromatographic permeability and column resistance factor are discussed for packed as well as open tubular columns. The experimental determination of all these factoers is demonstrated. The influence of the shape and pore volume of porous and non-porous supports on the column resistance factor and the chromatographic permeability is discussed.     

The use of a micropump based on capillary and evaporation effects in a microfluidic flow injection chemiluminescence system

The performance of a micropump operating on evaporation and capillary effects, developed for microfluidic (lab-on-a-chip) systems, was studied employing it as the fluid drive in a microfluidic flow injection (FI) system, with chemiluminescence (CL) detection. The micropump featured simple structure, small dimensions, low fabrication cost and stable and adjustable flow-rates during long working periods. Using a micropump with 6.6 cm² evaporation area, with the ambient temperature and relative humidity fluctuating within 2 h in the ranges 20-21 °C and 30-32%, respectively, an average flow-rate of 3.02 μL/min was obtained, with a precision better than 1.2% R.S.D. (n = 61). When applied to the microchip FI-CL system using the luminol/hexacyanoferrate/H₂O₂ reaction, a precision of 1.4% R.S.D. (n = 11) was obtained for luminol at a sampling frequency of 30 h⁻¹.     

Quantifying temperature and flow rate effects on the performance of a fixed-bed chromatographic reactor

Chromatographic reactors are based on coupling chemical reactions with chromatographic separation in fixed-beds. Temperature and flow rate are important parameters for the performance of such reactors. Temperature affects mainly adsorption, chemical equilibria, mass transfer and reaction kinetics, whereas flow rate influences residence time and dispersion. In order to evaluate the mentioned effects, the hydrolysis reactions of methyl formate (MF) and methyl acetate (MA) were chosen as case studies. These reactions were performed experimentally in a lab-scale fixed-bed chromatographic reactor packed with a strong acidic ion exchange resin. The chosen reactions can be considered to represent a relative fast (MF) and a relative slow (MA) reaction. The processes which take place inside the reactor were described and simulated using an isothermal equilibrium dispersive model. The essential model parameters were determined experimentally at different temperatures and flow rates. The performance of the chromatographic reactor was evaluated at several discrete constant temperature levels by quantifying product purity, productivity and yield. The work provides insight regarding the influence of temperature and flow rate on values of the model parameters and the performance criteria.     

Cobalt ferrite for direct cracking of methane to produce hydrogen and carbon nanostructure: Effect of temperature and methane flow rate

Cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) was used as a catalyst for direct methane cracking. The reaction was accomplished in a fixed bed reactor at normal atmospheric pressure, while gas flow rate (20–50 mL/min) and reaction temperature (800–900 °C) were varied. The fresh CoFe₂O₄ morphology is sponge-like particle with inverse spinel structure as revealed from SEM and XRD results. The methane conversions and hydrogen formation rate were increased with reaction temperature, while catalyst stability and induction period decreased. Increases of gas flow rate > 20 mL/min led to a decrease the overall catalytic activity of CoFe₂O₄ for methane cracking. The XRD results of spent catalysts revealed that CoFe alloy was the active phase of methane cracking. TGA analysis showed that the largest amount of deposited carbon was 70.46 % at (20 mL/min, 900 °C), where it was 34.40 % at (50 mL/min, 800 °C). The deposited carbon has the shape of spherical carbon nanostructures and/or nano sprouts as observed with SEM. Raman data confirmed the graphitization type of the deposited carbon.     

Origin and correction of the deviations in retention times at increasing flow rate with Chromolith columns

Chromoliths can be used at flow rates beyond those feasible for conventional microparticulate packed columns. Ideally, the plots of the retention time versus the inverse of delivered flow rate should exhibit y-intercept of zero. However, significant positive deviations correlating with the solute polarity were observed for several compounds chromatographed with a Chromolith column, owing to the increased system pressure. Consequently, the dead time marker exhibits a smaller deviation, making the retention factors depend on the flow rate. Chromoliths are made of a silica-based monolith encapsulated within a PEEK tube, and should suffer larger stress with pressure than stainless steel columns, tending to inflate them and increase their volume. This decreases the linear velocity inside the column, and increases the retention at relatively low pressure (<200 bar). In contrast, frictional heating, which is an issue for microparticulate columns, seems to be less significant for the highly permeable Chromoliths. The usefulness of the retention time versus the inverse of the delivered flow rate plots to measure the deviations, whatever their origin, is shown. This allows the correction of the retention times to the ideal behaviour, where the retention factors are independent of the flow rate.     

Correction of the deviations in the retention times with Chromolith columns associated to the flow rate: implications in the modelling of the retention behaviour

In a previous work (J. Sep. Sci. 2009, 32, 2793-2803), we reported an interpretive optimisation approach to achieve maximal resolution in minimal analysis time, based on models describing the retention and peak shape as a function of mobile phase composition and flow rate. The method was applied to the separation of a group of basic drugs in a Chromolith column. In that work, we found that the retention factors were sensitive to the flow rate. The reason of the observed deviations in retention times is the increase in the column volume at the applied pressure, which decreases the linear velocity inside the column. This behaviour forced to include a correction term in the model that described the retention. We show here how the deviations in retention times can be evaluated, allowing retention models that do not include the flow rate as a variable, similar to isocratic chromatography at fixed flow rate. The logarithm of the deviations in the retention times with flow rate is shown to correlate with the solute polarity. This correlation is compared with similar correlations for the retention factor at fixed mobile phase composition and the extrapolated retention factor in water at fixed flow rate.     

The temperature window of minimum flow resistance in melt flow of polyethylene. Further studies on the effect of strain rate and branching

The existence of a narrow temperature window (150–153°C) of smooth extrudability coupled with a minimum in flow resistance (extrusion pressure) in high-molecular weight polyethylene (>4 × 10⁵ g mol^?1) was the subject of a previous article where it was associated with strain-induced formation of the mobile hexagonal mesophase. The new findings of this note show that this minimum in flow resistance only sets in above a critical strain rate; this is interpreted in terms of the requirement of a critical strain rate in order to stretch molecules to their fully extended configuration. Furthermore, this critical strain rate is shown to be higher for lower molecular weight materials, in agreement with a priori considerations. Additionally, the temperature at which the pressure minimum occurs in a polyethylene containing methyl branches shifts to a significantly lower value than that for the linear material. This is interpreted in terms of the ? CH₃ groups raising the crystal free energy, thereby lowering the temperature at which the transition to the hexagonal phase occurs.     

Peat as a natural solid-phase for copper preconcentration and determination in a multicommuted flow system coupled to flame atomic absorption spectrometry

The physical and chemical characteristics of peat were assessed through measurement of pH, percentage of organic matter, cationic exchange capacity (CEC), elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy and quantitative analysis of metals by ICP OES. Despite the material showed to be very acid in view of the percentage of organic matter, its CEC was significant, showing potential for retention of metal ions. This characteristic was exploited by coupling a peat mini-column to a flow system based on the multicommutation approach for the in-line copper concentration prior to flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination. Cu(II) ions were adsorbed at pH 4.5 and eluted with 0.50 mol L⁻¹ HNO₃. The influence of chemical and hydrodynamic parameters, such as sample pH, buffer concentration, eluent type and concentration, sample flow-rate and preconcentration time were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, a linear response was observed between 16 and 100 μg L⁻¹, with a detection limit estimated as 3 μg L⁻¹ at the 99.7% confidence level and an enrichment factor of 16. The relative standard deviation was estimated as 3.3% (n = 20). The mini-column was used for at least 100 sampling cycles without significant variation in the analytical response. Recoveries from copper spiked to lake water or groundwater as well as concentrates used in hemodialysis were in the 97.3-111% range. The results obtained for copper determination in these samples agreed with those achieved by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) at the 95% confidence level.     

Development of flow injection potentiometric methods for the off-line and on-line determination of fluoride to monitor the biodegradation of a monofluorophenol in two bioreactors

Water treatment has become a source of concern as new pollutants and higher volumes of waste water must be treated. Emerging biological approaches, namely the use of bioreactors, for cleaning processes have been introduced. The use of bioreactors requires the development of efficient monitoring tools, preferably with real-time measurements. In this work, a couple of flow injection systems were developed and optimized for the potentiometric determination of fluoride to monitor a rotating biological contactor (RBC) bioreactor and a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with off-line and on-line sampling. Both the RBC and the SBR bioreactors were set up for the biodegradation of the halogenated organic compound 2-fluorophenol and, as fluoride was a degradation byproduct, the process was monitored by following up its concentration.The described flow injection potentiometric methods enabled the fluoride determination within the required quantification range 0.10-100 mM. The possible interferences from the growth medium were minimized in-line. The determination rate was 78 h⁻¹ for the off-line monitoring of RBC and 50⁻¹ h for the on-line monitoring of the SBR, with a sample consumption of 0.500 mL and 0.133 mL per determination, respectively. Furthermore, the overall reagent consumption was quite low. The accuracy of the system was evaluated by comparison with a batch procedure. The SBR efficiency was monitored both on-line by the flow system and off-line by HPLC, for comparison purposes.     

Simultaneous determination of antioxidants, preservatives and sweetener additives in food and cosmetics by flow injection analysis coupled to a monolithic column

Today it is common to find samples with various additives from several families. This is the case of sweeteners, preservatives and antioxidants. We have selected a set of additives broadly used in foods and cosmetics with an ample variety of polarities, namely: aspartame (AS), acesulfame (AK)/saccharin (SA), metylparaben (MP), ethylparaben (EP), propylparaben (PP), butylparaben (BP), propylgallate (PG) and butylhydroxyanysole (BA). The monolithic column used as separative system is a 5 mm commercial precolumn of silica C₁₈ coupled to a flow injection manifold working with a peristaltic pump. The mixture was separated in only 400 s with resolution factors greater than 1.1 in all cases. To achieve the separation in the FIA system we used two carriers: first, a mixture of ACN/water buffered with 10 mM pH 6.0 phosphate buffer and second, a methanol:water mixture to improve the carrier strength and speed up the more apolar analytes at 3.5 mL min⁻¹. Detection is accomplished by means of a diode array spectrometer at the respective wavelength of each compound. The comparison of the analytical parameters obtained for this procedure with a standard HPLC method validates our new method, obtaining a method that is quick, with high repeatability and reproducibility and with good resolution between analytes. We have successfully applied the method to real food and cosmetics samples.     

Development of a method to screen and isolate xanthine oxidase inhibitors from black bean in a single step: Hyphenation of semipreparative liquid chromatography and stepwise flow rate countercurrent chromatography

Black bean, in which isoflavones are the main active constituent, also contains saponins and monoterpenes. Soybean isoflavone is a secondary metabolite that is formed during the growth of soybean; it exhibits antioxidant and cardiovascular activities and traces estrogen-like effects. In this study, black bean isoflavones were extracted with n-butanol, and ultrafiltration–liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry was used to screen their activity. Subsequently, the inhibitors were isolated and purified using semipreparative liquid chromatography and stepwise flow rate countercurrent chromatography. Thereafter, five active compounds were identified using mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. Finally, the inhibition types of the xanthine oxidase inhibitors were determined using enzymatic kinetic studies. The IC₅₀ values of daidzin, glycitein-7-O-glucoside, genistin, daidzein, and genistein were determined to be 35.08, 56.22, 30.76, 68.79, and 95.37 μg/mL, respectively. Daidzin, genistin, and daidzein exhibited reversible inhibition, whereas glycitein-7-O-glucoside and genistein presented irreversible inhibition. This novel approach, which was based on ultrafiltration–liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry and stepwise flow rate countercurrent chromatography, is a powerful method for screening and isolating xanthine oxidase inhibitors from complex matrices. The study of enzyme inhibition types is helpful for understanding the underlying inhibition mechanism. Therefore, a beneficial platform was developed for the large-scale production of bioactive and nutraceutical ingredients.