An improved procedure for packing capillaries for capillary electrochromatography

Summary

This paper introduces a novel improvement to high pressure slurry packing of CEC capillaries. Slurry homogeneity is maintained by constantly stirring in a ‘balanced density’ solvent system in a vessel with a configuration that prevents silica agglomerates from blocking the capillary inlet. Up to nine, one metre length capillaries may be packed simultaneously and repeatably in under 3 hours. All capillaries produced peak efficiencies greater than 100,000 plates/metre with 5 μm Spherisorb ODS1 and showed capillary to capillary variability of less than 10% in terms of peak symmetry and peak efficiency. The data has been presented in part, at the 23^rd International Symposium in Chromatography 2000.