Comparison of chromatographic band profiles obtained under microwave irradiated and non-irradiated reversed-phase liquid chromatography column

The possible influence of the application of microwave energy to a reversed-phase liquid chromatography column on the mass transfer kinetics and the thermodynamics of equilibrium between mobile and stationary phases was examined. Chromatograms of propylbenzene and phenol were recorded under the same experimental conditions, on the same column, successively irradiated and not. The effect of microwave irradiation on the mass transfer kinetics was determined by measuring the second moment of small pulses of propylbenzene in a 70:30 (v/v) solution of methanol in water and microwave outputs of 15 and 30 W. The effect of microwave irradiation on the equilibrium thermodynamics was determined by measuring the elution time of breakthrough curves of phenol at high concentrations in a 20:80 (v/v) solution of methanol and water and microwave outputs of 15, 50, and 150 W. A qualitative comparison of the profiles of the propylbenzene peaks obtained with and without irradiation suggests that this irradiation affects significantly the peak shapes. However, a qualitative comparison of the profiles of the breakthrough curves of phenol obtained with and without irradiation suggests that this irradiation has no significant effect on their shapes. The peak sharpening observed may be due to an increase in the diffusivity, resulting from the dielectric polarization under microwave irradiation. This effect is directly related to an increase of the rate of mass transfers in the column. In contrast, the similarity of the overloaded band profiles at high concentrations suggests that the equilibrium thermodynamics is unaffected by microwave irradiation. This may be explained by the transparence of the stationary phase to microwaves at 2.45 GHz. The column temperature was measured at the column outlet under irradiation powers of 15, 30, 50, and 150 W. It increases with increasing power, the corresponding effluent temperatures being 25 ± 1, 30 ± 1, 35 ± 1, and 45 ± 1 °C, respectively.