A monolithic HPLC column is a special type of column used in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with porous channels rather than beads. High-performance liquid chromatography is the third most widely used laboratory instrument, surpassed only by analytical balances and pH meters. Advances in HPLC are evolutionary, not revolutionary, moving forward incrementally over long periods of time. HPLC column technologies are no exception.
HPLC columns are consumable drop-ins for the HPLC instrument, yet they are arguably the most important part. It is the chemistry and structure of the HPLC column that allows for efficient separations. In the long history of HPLC, particulate packed columns have been the norm. In these, tiny beads of an inert substance, typically a modified silica, are packed tightly into a tube. Monolithic columns possess a different structure from traditional columns. Their construction is more akin to a rod with lots of random channeling and outcroppings. The differences in the HPLC columns, as well as the history and the industries in which they play a role, will be discussed in detail below.
Read more about Monolithic HPLC Column: Technology Overview, Technology Development, Technology Life Cycle, Industry Evolution, Technology Applications, Industry Applications, Economic Impact
Famous quotes containing the words monolithic and/or column:
“Peer pressure is not a monolithic force that presses adolescents into the same mold. . . . Adolescents generally choose friend whose values, attitudes, tastes, and families are similar to their own. In short, good kids rarely go bad because of their friends.”
—Laurence Steinberg (20th century)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)