FUSED-SILICA PACKED MICROCOLUMNS IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

Short fused-silica packed microcolumns with i.d. 0.53 mm for micro-HPL C and the procedure for their packing with various reversed-phase sorb ents are studied. Values of extracolumn peak spreading in elements of a microcolumn chromatograph are found experimentally. A comparison of these values with the values calculated theoretically shows that the j oints connecting the column with the injector and the detector make th e major contribution to the extracolumn peak spreading. The loss in co lumn performance in extracolumn volumes for a 100 mm column is no more than 30% for rapid elution. Examples of isocratic and gradient chroma tographic separation of model mixtures of low- and high-molecular comp ounds are given.