Unmatched Kinetic Performance in Enantioselective Supercritical Fluid Chromatography by Combining Latest Generation Whelk-O1 Chiral Stationary Phases with a Low-Dispersion in-House Modified Equipment

This proof-of-concept work investigates the ultimate kinetic limits reachable in chiral supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) with modern columns and advanced technological solutions. A commercial equipment (Waters Acquity UPC2) has been in-house modified to minimize its overall extra-column variance through a series of technical adjustments including low-volume connecting tubings, reduced-volume flow cell, an in-house made external column oven, external low-dispersion injection system, and electronic temperature controller. Compared to the original (as-shipped) configuration, the extra-column variance on the low-dispersion equipment was reduced by more than 97%, from about 85 to slightly more than 2 μL2 (measured at 2.0 mL/min). This was mainly achieved thanks to the occurrence of fully developed turbulent regime with a proper selection of capillary i.d. at significantly smaller flow rates (1.5–4 mL/min; CO2/methanol 80/20, v/v; 35 °C; back pressure regulator (BPR), 105 bar) than in entry-1 configuration. Ultrahigh efficiency columns of different geometries in-house packed with latest generation sub-2 μm UHPC-FPP-Whelk-O1 Chiral Stationary Phase (CSP) have been employed under sub- and supercritical fluid conditions. By carefully modulating the length and the internal diameter of connecting tubings in the function of column geometry, state of the art efficiencies (estimated in roughly 300 000 theoretical plates/m with reduced HETP of roughly 1.85) have been obtained on 4.6 mm i.d. chiral columns. Remarkably, for 3.0 mm × 100 mm (i.d. × length) columns, the efficiency gain on the fully modified SFC system (compared to an instrumental configuration where only the standard injector was replaced by the low-dispersion one) was greater than 90% for compounds with a retention factor of 1 and as large as 25% for retention factors of 2.5