Consolidation of the packing material in chromatographic columns under dynamic axial compression III. Effect of the nature of the packing solvent on the consolidation and performance of axial compression columns

Abstract

Consolidation characteristics were studied for axial compression columns packed with five different solvents. All the columns were packed with nearly the same amount of the same packing material. Their lengths were close to each other. HETP curves were measured with acetone as the probe and methanol as the eluting solvent. The experiments reported here confirmed previous ones carried out with heptane and methanol. The consolidation process appears to depend on the nature of the solvent. The bed obtained is more compact with heptane than with methanol. The other three solvents give packing densities close to the density obtained with methanol. However, using methanol, isopropanol, or acetone as packing solvent produces better columns than using acetonitrile or heptane. No obvious correlation was found between the packing density and the efficiency of the columns.