Hazardous chemicals are generated when performing HPLC separations, so using superheated water and/or ethanol provides a serious alternative to more traditional methods
Temperature programmed liquid chromatography (TPLC) specialist Selerity Technologies says it has further demonstrated that its Polaratherm total temperature controller is completely geared towards cleaner and environmentally friendly method development in the modern laboratory.
Separations of sulphonamides carried out by the Research Institute for Chromatography (RIC, Belgium), Selerity's European partner, using the instrument have demonstrated that green solvent mixtures can replace toxic and hazardous mobile phase compositions.
In the USA, the Pollution Prevention Act (1990) has already provided the impetus for a number of public and private organisations to develop green chemistry programmes and this trend is growing worldwide as legislation and standards become more stringent.
Since copious amounts of hazardous chemicals are generated when performing HPLC separations, using superheated water and/or ethanol in chromatographic runs provides a serious alternative to more traditional methods.
RIC's controlled experiments expose the feasibility of using a green solvent mixture of ethanol and water as a mobile phase composition instead of an acetronitrile and water mixture by applying a TPLC technique.
Preheating of the mobile phase is essential to optimise results and Selerity's Polaratherm, with its innovative preheater design that eliminates band broadening (thermal mismatch), was used to perform the separations.
The Polaratherm's preheater assembly is calibrated to the oven temperature upon installation to ensure that the mobile phase temperature closely follows that of the column compartment.
The control remains independent from that of the oven cavity to allow for peak focusing when the need arises.
