Construction of a new interface for comprehensive supercritical fluid chromatography x reversed phase liquid chromatography (SFC x RPLC)

The design of a new interface to hyphen high efficiency supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and fast RPLC in a comprehensive configuration is described. SFC x RPLC is a viable alternative to normal phase (NP) LC x RPLC and is characterized by high orthogonality. Compared to NPLC x RPLC an additional advantage is the expansion of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) when exposed to atmospheric pressure leading to fractions consisting of solvents that are miscible with the second dimension RPLC mobile phase. The interface consists of a two-position/ten-port switching valve equipped with two packed octadecyl silica (C-18) loops for effective trapping and focusing of the analytes after elution from the SFC dimension. The addition of a water make-up flow to the SFC effluent prior to entering the loops is of fundamental importance to efficiently focus the solutes on the C-18 material and to reduce interferences of expanded CO2 gas on the second dimension separation. The features of the system are illustrated with the analysis of a lemon oil sample.