Optimized Thermostatted Column Compartment Plumbing

Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) is susceptible to increased noise due to poor thermal matching of components within the Agilent 1260 Infinity II/III stack. The refractive index of carbon dioxide is 50 times more susceptible to temperature changes than water. Consequently, thermal control in SFC is extremely important. The Multicolumn Thermostat (MCT) contains two thermal conditioning zones that can greatly increase system performance by matching temperatures of the mobile phase to the modules being used.

Each of these zones contains heat exchangers that can be used to thermally condition the fluid flowing through them. The two zones exist on the left and right side blocks within the MCT.

The right zone is used to precondition the mobile phase before it enters the column. When using 150 mm or shorter columns, place them in the right side of the oven. This zone is used to precondition the fluid to column temperature and provide thermal control of the column.

The left zone is plumbed with the effluent from the column. The purpose of the left side block is to independently match the temperature of the mobile phase to the optimum temperature for the detector. In order to achieve minimum noise it is important to use the optimum conditioning temperature prior to detection.