New device for controlling the amount of methanol in carbon dioxide mobile phase for supercritical fluid chromatography

A new device to accurately deliver a small amount of methanol into supercritical carbon dioxide fluid is described. Carbon dioxide, the most widely used mobile phase in supercritical fluid chromatography, is a relatively non-polar fluid, and hence the addition of a small amount of methanol could change the solvent strength of the mobile phase. In this work, supercritical CO₂ and methanol are delivered from the pump to a 100-μl mixing chamber in which a small magnetic bar is rotating. After passing through the mixing chamber, supercritical CO₂ is changed to a new mobile phase with different polarity. The modified mobile phase was successfully used for the separations of polar compounds and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).