Investigation, comparison and design of chambers used in centrifugal partition chromatography on the basis of flow pattern and separation experiments

• Hydrodynamic investigation of chambers used in centrifugal partition chromatography.
• Comparison of commercial and custom designed chambers under unified conditions.
• Separation efficiency of different chambers based on reference values.
• Influence of chamber design on separation efficiency.

In centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) the separation efficiency is mainly influenced by the hydrodynamic of mobile and stationary phase in the chambers. Thus, the hydrodynamic has to be investigated and understood in order to enhance a CPC separation run. Different chamber geometries have been developed in the past and the influence of several phase systems and CPC operating conditions were investigated for these chambers. However, a direct comparison between the different chamber types has not been performed yet. In order to investigate the direct influence of the chamber design on the hydrodynamic, several chamber designs – partially similar in geometry to commercial available designs – are investigated under standardized conditions in the present study. The results show the influence of geometrical aspects of the chamber design on the hydrodynamic and therewith, on the separation efficiency. As a conclusion of the present study, some ideas for an optimal chamber design for laboratory and industrial purpose are proposed.