Preparative Liquid Chromatography

Preparative Liquid Chromatography (LC) is a technique used to isolate and purify target compounds from complex mixtures. The primary goal of preparative chromatography is to obtain a sufficient quantity and purity of the desired compound for further experiments or applications rather than just analytical characterization. Upon selecting the appropriate separation mode (e.g., reversed-phase, normal-phase, ion exchange) based on the chemical and physical properties of the target compound, the analytical separation is scaled up to a preparative chromatography column.

Preparative LC columns are used for large scale purification and isolation. Preparative LC columns have ids that are 20 mm or greater and have flow rates of 10-200 mL/min. Optimal preparative performance relies on columns having a uniformly packed sorbent bed and eliminating fines or crushed media that can cause decreased column lifetimes and increased column-to-column variability.