Influence of batch-to-batch reproducibility of Luna C-18(2) packing material, nature of column wall material, and column diameter on the liquid chromatographic analysis of basic analytes

This paper discusses aspects arising on transferring liquid chromatography (LC) methods developed on conventional size columns to micro LC, i.e. the i nfluence of batch-to-batch reproducibility of packing material, the nature of the column wall material, and the column inner diameter. it was shown th at the nature of the column hardware as well as batches of Luna C18(2) pack ing material did not influence the retention of basic compounds. The batche s of packing material, however, significantly influenced the peak shape for some compounds. The nature of the mobile phase buffer also showed an effec t on peak shape. The column wall material as well as the column inner diame ter did not reveal effects on the peak shape. Different packing densities w ere found for micro and conventional LC columns, i.e. the micro LC columns were less densely packed than the conventional LC columns. The study demons trated that for the analysis of basic analytes similar separations are obta ined using micro and conventional LC columns provided that the columns are packed from the same batch of packing material.