Achieving the full performance of highly efficient columns by optimizing conventional benchmark high-performance liquid chromatography instruments

A series of experiments and measurements demonstrate the importance of minimizing the extra-column band broadening contribution of the instrument used. The combination of several measures allowed the achievement of the full potential efficiency of three Kinetex-C18 columns, using a conventional liquid chromatograph. The first measure consists in minimizing the extra-column volume of the instrument, without increasing much its back pressure contribution, by changing the needle seat volume, the inner diameter and length of the capillary connectors, and the volume of the detector cell of a standard instrument (Agilent 1100). The second measure consists in injecting a volume of weak eluent (less than half the elution strength of the mobile phase) right after the sample, before the sample had time to reach the column. Experimental results show that these changes could provide most of the resolution expected from the true column performance. After the changes were made, the resolutions of the 2.1 mm × 50 mm, 4.6 mm × 50 mm, and 4.6 mm × 100 mm Kinetex-C18 columns for compounds having retention factors close to 1 were increased by about 180, 35, and 30%, respectively. The resolutions obtained are then similar to those measured with advanced instruments like the Agilent 1200, the Agilent 1290 Infinity HPLC, and the Acquity chromatographs.