High-performance liquid chromatography is a technique in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify, and quantify each component in a mixture. It relies on pumps that pass a pressurized liquid solvent containing the sample mixture through a column filled with a solid adsorbent material. Each component in the sample interacts slightly differently with the adsorbent material, causing different flow rates for the different components and leading to the separation of the components as they flow out of the column.
In column chromatography the elution rate of different components in a mobile phase is dependent on the size and shape of the particles in the stationary phase. Elution rate precision is greatly improved when a stationary phase is made up of uniform particles.
The FlowCam provides critical size and shape information which allows for tighter column density control, and in turn, better control of column performance. FlowCam can help trace damaged (non-spherical) particles that are often present in different lots of column packing material.