Use of the isopycnic plots in designing operations of supercritical fluid chromatography: IV. Pressure and density drops along columns.

The pressure- and the density-drops along a chromatographic column eluted with supercritical fluid carbon dioxide were mapped as a function of the outlet column pressure and the temperature on the P-T diagram of neat CO(2). At low densities, the viscosity of CO(2) is low, which is expected to result into a low pressure drop along the column. However, at these low densities, the volumetric flow rates of the mobile phase at constant mass flow rates are high, which might result into a high pressure drop along the column. These conflicting effects of an adjustment in the mobile phase density on the pressure drop of the mobile phase along the column makes it nearly impossible to develop a simple intuitive understanding of the relationships between the net pressure drops and the operating temperatures and pressures. The development of a similar understanding of their relationships with the density drop along the column is even more complex, because this density drop depends also on the compressibility of the mobile phase, itself a function of the operating pressures and temperatures. Numerical calculations of the pressure and density drops along columns packed with particles of different sizes, under different operating conditions (temperature, outlet pressure, and flow rate), provide important insights regarding the extent of the pressure and density drops under these operating conditions.