Agilent Technologies has introduced the 1200 series analytical supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) system.
The system combines the Agilent 1200 series rapid resolution liquid chromatography system with the Aurora SFC Fusion A5 into a complete SFC system.
Aurora SFC Systems and Agilent have signed an OEM agreement under which Agilent will sell and support the combined system.
The Agilent 1200 series analytical SFC system is claimed to deliver a tenfold increase in sensitivity compared with existing SFC solutions.
This increase is achieved by combining Aurora SFC Fusion A5 and Agilent solvent delivery systems to deliver carbon dioxide (CO2) flow with the same pulseless precision as is achieved for water and organic solvent.
A dynamic range greater than 20,000 allows researchers to measure enantiomeric excess and quantify impurities that are 0.05 per cent of the main peak.
CO2-based mobile phase diffusion rates enable high-resolution and ultrafast separations at moderate operating pressures, using conventional size columns.
In addition to the sensitivity improvement, the Agilent 1200 series analytical SFC system is also said to cost less to operate than existing systems because it uses standard-grade CO2 instead of highly expensive liquid SFC grade CO2.
Moreover, low solvent consumption is environmentally friendly.
The Aurora SFC Fusion A5 connects to the Agilent 1200 RRLC system, combining the robustness, reliability and performance of Agilent's LC technology with the enhanced speed, resolution and sensitivity of SFC.
Installation is reversible, so the Agilent instrument can still be used in RRLC configuration.
SFC is similar to normal phase HPLC, but most of the mobile phase is replaced by liquid CO2.
Much higher flow rates are achieved with proportional increases in numbers of samples that can be run per shift, and associated cost savings.
