Non Spherical Particles for HPLC

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Extending liquid chromatographic column technology to even higher performance levels has given rise to ultra high pressure liquid chromatography UPLC core shell particle technology and instrumental developments such as lower volumes for injector and detector hydraulics In spite of these advances there is still room for improvement in speed selectivity and resolution of the liquid chromatographic process We propose that another level of improvement can be obtained with a change in particle shape by using ellipsoidal particles These particles offer a reduced pressure drop a higher mass fraction per unit volume of particles and the possibility to minimize wall effects that are characteristic o packed beds of spherical particles Furthermore the possibility of extending this non spherical particle technology to smaller particle size is important because smaller spherical particles while offering reduced zone broadening offer larger pressure drops At some point the advantage of superficially porous particle architecture diminishes as particle size is reduced below m If a route to smaller superficially porous non spherical particles can be devised which minimizes the deleterious pressure drop of spheres then performance can be increased before the pressure drop causes insurmountable difficulties New chromatographic particles will be synthesized with a solid ellipsoidal or spherocylinder like core and then a porous layer will be deposited around the outside for chromatographic retention We have demonstrated previously in Phase I that there are advantages to this structure with regards to pressure drop and this can be rationalized by bed structures and performance that resemble a monolithic column without the problems of radial inhomogeneity and wall effect laden zone broadening that are present in monolithic column technology We think of the proposed bed structure as that from a andquot pourable monolith andquot The current proposal uses synthesis technology and process scale technology that were discovered and refined during Phase I efforts where it was shown that improved performance can be obtained for larger spherocylinder like particles that are comparable with smaller spherical particles In this comparison both the non spherical and spherical particles used core shell technology which AMT has pioneered Phase II will expand on this effort with the purpose of delivering further improved materials and methods to a broader range of applications in small molecule separations such as metabolomics to large molecules such as proteins glycoproteins and glycans The aim here is to not only increase chromatographic resolution but to make faster separations possible PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE High pressure liquid chromatography is the most widely used analytical method to separate mixtures of molecules allowing measurement of quantities and identities of materials in a sample This method is broadly used in biomedical research as well as in the creation manufacture and control of therapeutic interventions The current proposal is to use new knowledge in materials science and chemistry to enable faster and more efficient separations by liquid chromatography saving time and money as well as enabling new uses of the method to understand the structure and function of biological molecules