CENTRIFUGAL PARTITION CHROMATOGRAPHY: AN OVERVIEW

Centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) is a new and unique method of liquid-liquid chromatography. CPC enables the separation of components with nearly identical partition ratios, and is performed without the aid of a solid support. The method is used for chromatographic reaction in addition to chromatographic separation. Centrifugal partition chromatography is a type of counter current chromatography, which is an automated liquid-liquid extraction process permitting hundreds of automatic successive extractions. A CPC instrument or a CPC column is a series of channels linked in cascade by ducts and aligned in cartridges or disks in a circle around a rotor; setting the rotor in motion submits this assembly to a constant centrifugal field. The originality of CPC is that it uses any biphasic liquid-liquid system as mobile and stationary phases. The United States branch of Sanki contributed greatly to the worldwide acceptance of the technique. Recent works performed in the Netherlands and in France have, by means of visualization of flow-patterns in CPC channels, contributed to a better knowledge of hydrodynamics and mass transfer phenomena. Centrifugal partition chromatography has wide advantages like No column to replace, no silica to recycle, Low solvent consumption, High flow rate for low run time, High performances. Purity > 99%, recovery>90%,No sample losses, No denaturation, no irreversible adsorption of the sample, Huge application fields from petroleum extract to proteins. Hence it is widely employed in the pharmaceutical industry.