Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC)
The use of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) is a green alternative to traditional High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), with the use of CO2 taking the place of the organic solvent as the mobile phase. CO2 has benefits for cost, health & safety, as well as faster, cleaner sample recovery during sample purification. Other advantages of supercritical fluids include low viscosity with liquid-like densities, for higher solubility and increased column loading. The low viscosity and high diffusion lead to faster separations and faster extractions.
SFC has long been the method of choice for chiral separations, but with a large (and rapidly growing) range of column phases available – SFC is now becoming a powerful tool for achiral separations, both analytically and for sample prep.
System | Column ID | CO2 Flow Rate | Injection Capacity |
Analytical | 3mm, 4.6mm | 0.2 - 10mL | Analytical |
Hybrid | 4.6mm, 10mm | 0.5 - 20mL | Analytical to 100mg |
Semi-Preparative | 4.6mm, 10mm, 20mm | 3.0 - 50mL | 100mg to 100 grams |
Preparative | 10mm, 20mm, 30mm | 5.0 - 150mL | Up to 500 grams |