Kinetic performance comparison of fully and superficially porous particles with sizes ranging between 2.7μm and 5μm: Intrinsic evaluation and application to a pharmaceutical test compound

AbstractThe reintroduction of superficially porous particles has resulted in a leap forward for the separation performance in liquid chromatography. The underlying reasons for the higher efficiency of columns packed with these particles are discussed. The performance of the newly introduced 5μm superficially porous particles is evaluated and compared to 2.7μm superficially porous and 3.5 and 5μm fully porous columns using typical test compounds (alkylphenones) and a relevant pharmaceutical compound (impurity of amoxicillin). The 5μm superficially porous particles provide a superior kinetic performance compared to both the 3.5 and 5μm fully porous particles over the entire relevant range of separation conditions. The performance of the superficially porous particles, however, appears to depend strongly on retention and analyte properties, emphasizing the importance of comparing different columns under realistic conditions (high enough k) and using the compound of interest