Supercritical Fluid Chromatography: A- Review

Abstract

A version of the normal phase chromatography technique, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has been in use since 1962. Since carbon dioxide is usually used as the mobile phase in SFC, it is necessary to pressurise the whole chromatographic flow route. The supercritical phase is a condition where the characteristics of liquids and gases converge, which is why supercritical fluid chromatography is also known as "convergence chromatography." One of the most significant column chromatography techniques, after gas chromatography (GC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), is supercritical fluid chromatography. The desirable qualities of both gas and liquid states are brought together in supercritical fluids. Density, diffusivity, and viscosity are the defining characteristics of a supercritical fluid. In supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), a supercritical fluid carries the sample down a separating column, where it is separated into distinct bands according to the degree of interaction between the analytes and the stationary phase. Identities and amounts of these bands are determined by a detector when they exit the column. Because the mobile phase behaves as a liquid when it is below its critical temperature and above its critical pressure, the technique is called liquid chromatography (LC), and when it is above its critical temperature and below its critical pressure, the mobile phase acts as a gas, making SFC a hybrid of gas and liquid chromatography. The equipment needed for supercritical fluid chromatography is compatible with several detectors, making it very adaptable. The list of items that have found a use for SFC is long and varied, and includes things like natural goods, medications, foods, herbicides, surfactants, polymers, polymer additives, petroleum, explosives, and propellants.
Keywords: Critical pressure, critical temperature, supercritical fluid, diffusivity