MASS-TRANSFER IN IDEAL AND GEOMETRICALLY DEFORMED OPEN TUBES .2. POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF IDEAL AND COILED OPEN TUBES IN LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

It has been shown experimentally in Part I that the peak broadening in an open tube with a liquid mobile phase can be described solely by the Cmu term of the Golay equation, if the inner diameter is small (< 100 μm) and the linear velocity is not extremely high (< 1 m/sec). With this assumption optimal values achievable in capillary columns are calculated for the number of theoretical and effective plates, the speed of analysis, the number of plates per unit pressure drop and the peak volume. These parameters yield results which are hardly, if at all, better than those generated in packed columns in routine liquid chromatography. Even if the instrumental problems, including the coating of the open tube, are neglected, capillary columns will be of interest in liquid chromatography only is secondary flow can be generated within the open tubes. © 1979.