Shear-flow-based chromatographic separations as an alternative to pressure-driven liquid chromatography

It is only by developing specially designed injection and detection systems that shear-driven chromatography can become a viable alternative to HPLC. In the present paper, a dedicated zero dead-volume injection procedure is presented with which sample volumes can be injected reproducibly in the required picoliter range. In addition, a transversal detection groove system is designed which should allow to perform on-line UV–VIS absorption measurements with path lengths in the millimeter range, with an acceptable theoretical plate loss (only 20% in a 5 cm long channel) and acting as a nearly perfect wave guide.