ADVANCES IN SUPERCRITICAL-FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHIC PROCESSES

Analytical supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is now coming to a ge with widespread use in many laboratories, and chromatographic proce sses using supercritical eluents are now considered as potential solut ions for large-scale fractionations. The hydrodynamics of supercritica l fluids through porous media and retention phenomena are analysed pri or to describing both adsorption-desorption processes and ''classical' ' preparative elution chromatography, which appears to be a competitor to preparative HPLC especially when non-polar molecules are to be han dled. The combination of the high selectivity of chromatographic inter actions and the unique properties of supercritical fluids (mainly CO2) will probably lead to promising applications mainly in the pharmaceut ical and fine chemical industries and possibly also in pollution abate ment in the next decade.