Expanding the Use of Liquid Chromatography Through Active Temperature Control

该项目由美国国家科学基金会化学部的化学测量和成像计划资助。匹兹堡大学的Stephen Weber教授及其同事指出了液相色谱法的局限性。该团队正在提高液相色谱技术区分一种物质与另一种物质的能力，以及提高测量各种样品中痕量浓度的能力。 色谱法基于分配原理，即物质倾向于油性物质而不是水性溶液。 该项目的成果包括从样品中获得更多更好的信息，成本和环境负担比以前实现的更低。与蛋白质组学（例如，健康，制药和生物化学研究）和二维液相色谱（例如，制药，化工，农业和环境）领域的科学家合作证明了项目目标的有效性。更广泛的影响体现在色谱过程的改进，这些改进在许多领域和应用中都很有用。液相色谱法几乎用于每个行业，例如，环境，制药，营养，法医，毒理学，聚合物，化学品和化妆品。Weber博士还正在开发一个女童军奖章项目，以探索色谱方法及其用途。该项目使用色谱柱的温度控制来实现更大的溶质聚焦，并以可预测的方式控制保留。对于许多相关的有机化合物，确定控制特定化合物对温度变化的敏感性的保留值。这些数据用于确定分子片段的构象。然后预测了新化合物的保留温度依赖性。在色谱方法开发过程中，软件可以预测色谱柱温度变化时的色谱行为。当用于辅助溶质聚焦时，温度控制显著提高了浓度检测限。

This project is funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation. Professor Stephen Weber and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh address limitations of liquid chromatography. The team is improving the ability of liquid chromatography techniques to distinguish one substance from another, as well as improving the ability to measure trace concentrations in a variety of samples. Chromatography is based on the principle of partitioning, the tendency of a substance to prefer an oily substance to water-based solution. The outcomes of this project include obtaining more and better information from samples with lower cost and lower environmental burden than has been previously realized. Collaborations with scientists in the fields of proteomics (for example, health, pharmaceuticals, and biochemistry research) and two-dimensional liquid chromatography (for example, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, agriculture, and the environment) demonstrate the effectiveness of the project goals. The broader impacts are evidenced in that improvements in chromatographic processes that are useful across many fields and applications. Liquid chromatography is used in virtually every industry, for example, environmental, pharmaceutical, nutritional, forensic, toxicology, polymers, chemicals, and cosmetics. A Girl Scout merit badge project is also being developed by Dr. Weber to explore chromatography methods and its uses.The project uses temperature control of the column to achieve greater solute focusing and to control retention in a predictable way. Retention enthalpies, which control the sensitivity of a particular compound to changes in temperature, are determined for a number of related organic compounds. These data are used to determine molecular fragment enthalpies. The temperature dependence of the retention of novel compounds are then predicted. Software to predict chromatographic behavior in the face of changing column temperature aids in chromatographic method development. The temperature control, when used to aid solute focusing, significantly improves concentration detection limits.