Comparative analytical characteristics of multicapillary chromatography columns with different capillary diameters

Abstract

Straight gas chromatography multicapillary columns (MCC) with 40 µm diameter capillaries (hereafter – 40 µm MCC) have been known for quite a long time and are well studied; they are used in portable gas analyzers. Some chromatographic characteristics of 25 µm MCCs, which appeared relatively recently, were also studied, while commercially available 60 and 80 µm MCCs are poorly studied. In this work the main analytical characteristics of 60 and 80 µm MCCs were determined and compared with the characteristics of 25 and 40 µm MCCs. It was shown that the maximum specific efficiency of the columns decreased with increasing column capillary diameter and is approximately 24.8, 18.2, 13.7 and 9.5 thousand theoretical plates (t.p.) per meter for 25, 40, 60 and 80 µm MCCs, respectively. It was established that the height equivalent to a theoretical plate of 60 and 80 μm MCCs was not varied significantly over a wide range of carrier gas velocities (nitrogen and helium), which allowed operating MCCs at high carrier gas flows essentially without loss of their efficiency. Moreover, for all MCCs the separation rate for peaks with a retention factor over 10 exceeded 600 t.p./s, and for peaks with a lower retention factor could be several thousand t.p./s, which is significantly higher than for conventional capillary and packed columns. It was established that it was possible to create very high carrier gas flows (up to 1000 cm3/min or more) for 60 µm MCCs and especially 80 µm MCCs at a relatively low pressure drop across the column. Therefore they can work as a part of chromatographic systems that require high carrier gas flow.