Monolithic Integrated Flow Circuit (Mifc): A New Column Design for Countercurrent Chromatography

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Abstract
A novel technique to produce a monolithic integrally formed system for countercurrent chromatography is introduced here. Through a molding technique, complex repetitive flow channels were formed into sheets of polypropylene. Two of these sheets were fused to form a closed separation chamber with a complete set of locules and integral transfer tubes. This system, called monolithic integrated flow circuit (MIFC), was produced in various configurations and tested while rotated, gyrated, or oscillated so as to promote mixing of the two solvent phases. Performance of each scheme was examined by separations of DNP-alanine and DNP-glutamic acid with a two-phase solvent system composed of chloroform: acetic acid: 0.1 N HCl (2:2:1). Under optimal conditions, the efficiencies of the schemes using gyration and oscillation were 94% and 74%, respectively. Simply rotational mixing was considerably less efficient. This compact MIFC system was found to be a simple yet ideal way of producing flow channels of great complexity for conventional droplet CCC and locular CCC. The performance of the tested configurations was outstanding.

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