The inability of the typical LC system to sufficiently separate chemically similar compounds is often encountered during drug development. With only subtle differences between a drug substance and its possible impurities/degradants, separation is often very difficult exacerbating such tasks as impurity profiling and structure elucidation. Recently, short columns (L < 5 cm) packed with <2 um material have been introduced and shown to have increased peak capacity per unit length relative to columns packed with 5 or 3 um material. Therefore, it would be advantageous to work with longer columns packed with smaller particles to further increase the peak capacity alleviate some of the difficulties encountered in drug development. For this to be possible, a LC system capable of pressures > 6000 psi is required. In 2004, Waters released the UPLCTM (P = 15,000 psi). However before the availability of a commercial system and realizing this need, a pressure conversion kit was designed and developed at PRD for standard LC systems to increase the system's pressure capabilities upto 20,000 psi. The design and the development considerations of the pressure conversion kit will be discussed and the separation performance of the system demonstrated with test mixtures and drug research samples. Experimental results obtained on the Waters UPLCTM will also be presented.
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Back to The 37th Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (May 22-25, 2005)