The Croatian Chemical Society - Split organized its 219th colloquium. Prof. František Švec Ph.D., from the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Charles University, Hradec Králové gave the lecture "HPLC (Hi)story: Column Technologies". Assoc. prof. Franko Burčul Ph.D., from the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Technology in Split chaired the colloquium.
Prof. František Švec Ph.D. authored more than 510 papers (h-index 100), and edits two scientific journals, Journal of Separation Science and Separation Science Plus. His scientific activity made the greatest contribution in the field of monoliths and their application in liquid and gas chromatography, electro-chromatography and preparation of samples.
Lecture summary:
It is about 120 years since the pioneering work of Michael Tswett who invented liquid chromatography (LC). This separation technique went through an incredible development and became the third most used method of analytical chemistry right after weighting and measuring pH. Despite this, the developments in LC are all but completed because the requirements set on this analytical method are increasing every single day. What needs to be achieved? For example, we seek fast and highly efficient separations at a constant back pressure and a flow rate using the smallest possible volume of the mobile phase.
Most of the currently dictated requirements must be achieved through the advanced column technologies. Chromatographic columns must possess characteristics such as outstanding selectivity, high efficiency, low back pressure, and longtime stability. The size of the columns must be minimized to enable separations of minuscule samples at a very limited consumption of the mobile phase that should in best scenario include “green” solvents. This presentation will first summarize the developments of column technologies since the advent of chromatography. Then, fulfilling the above requirements will be demonstrated with concrete examples of excellent groundbreaking research produced by top scientists in the field of chromatography. Finally, some ideas will be presented concerning possible future developments in liquid chromatography.
Foto: Z. Alajbeg