"TO GO SUB 2μm OR NOT TO GO, THAT IS THE QUESTION." - AT LEAST FOR THE ANALYSTS IN HIGH THROUGHPUT LABS

A meeting held in the UK two years ago at the site of a major Pharmaceutical Company saw one of its senior managers challenge the suppliers of separation science products to bring to the table ?faster, cheaper and better separations?. This article looks at the options that are available to an analyst in a High Throughput Lab and discusses the pros-and cons surrounding those options. As for the characteristics that constitute a ?better? separation, the author decided that this is a far too subjective criteria for this article, and anyway varies on a case-by-case basis. Manufacturers now are at a position where they have declared their hands on one of three technology options and the dividing line appears to be drawn at the use of, or not as the case may be, of columns containing sub 2μm diameter particles or not. A new generation of Instrumentation, moving on from what has been accepted as ?conventional? systems, has been developed on the back of these advances in column and particle technology. For the sake of allowing meaningful comparisons we are defining ?conventional? equipment as a system with a pump capable of delivering flow rates up to 10ml/min with maximum pressure of 6,000 psi (400 bars), columns of 150x4.6mm id containing 5μm particles and a variable wavelength UV detector with detection cell volume of 8μl.