Peter Schoemakers | Authors

The International Symposium on the Separation and Characterization of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules (SCM-X) will take place virtually, from 27 to 29 January 2021, with the live event potentially taking place in 2023. This preview offers a flavour of what visitors can look forward to from SCM-X’s “Zoomposium”.

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC×LC) is a powerful technique for separating highly complex samples. However, the proliferation of this technique is hindered by a range of challenges, including the possible impact of the additional separation on the detection sensitivity, concerns that mobile phase incompatibility problems will limit the applicability, and the complexity of the system and associated method development costs. This article addresses these issues and describes how modern modulators and software tools are overcoming the barriers associated with this technique.

Some members of the separation science community are still not yet convinced of the value of comprehensive two‑dimensional liquid chromatography (LC×LC). They feel that the large increase in separation power (that is, in peak capacity: the number of component peaks that may possibly be separated) may be compromised by losses in sensitivity and robustness of the separation. However, the chairmen of HPLC 2017 will have seen a great number of abstracts come their way from scientists who want to change this perception.

This is the second in a series of articles exploring current topics in separation science that will be addressed at the HPLC 2017 conference in Prague, Czech Republic, from 18–22 June.

A review of nomenclature and conventions used in comprehensive multidimensional chromatography. An update of the popular paper on this topic from 2003.

An optimization strategy to obtain the best possible performance in the shortest analysis time for comprehensive off-line 2D-LC.