Coupling of a microbore column with a column packed with non-porous particles for fast comprehensive two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatography

To reduce the analysis time in comprehensive two-dimensional HPLC columns packed with 1.5 mu m non-porous particles were applied in the second dimension. Preservation of the efficiency under coupling conditions was realized by adapting the peak volumes in the first dimension. To achieve this an instrumental set-up was designed and used which combines a micro-column in the first dimension and a column packed with non-porous particles in the second dimension. A theoretical approach to estimate the optimum column diameter ratio was verified experimentally. As an example a mixture of phenols was separated using a tetrachlorophthalimidopropyl silica in the first dimension and a 1.5 mu m RP-18 packing in the second dimension. The total time for the two-dimensional analysis of this mixture with an analysis time of 16 min in the first dimension was 70 min analysing 27 fractions on the second dimension column. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.