Characterization of lipids by supercritical fluid chromatography and supercritical fluid extraction

Supercritical media were first applied as mobile phases for chromatography by Klesper, Corwin and Turner (1962). At this time, packed columns were employed, and for almost two decades the supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) technique was studied and advanced only by a small group of scientists; the developments during this period have been reviewed by Sanagi and Smith (1988). It was not until 1981, with the advent of open tubular column SFC, as proposed by Novotny et al. (1981, 1984) that the technique received more widespread interest. Large efforts were then directed to the development of open tubular SFC, and the technique was developed to a relatively mature level, particularly by Lee and co-workers (Lee and Markides, 1989). However, in view of today’s knowledge, it seems that the merits of the technique were somewhat overestimated at that time. When scientists engaged with chromatography experienced that open tubular SFC was not the miracle technique that was originally expected, the interest rapidly declined, leading to the present situation where SFC is instead underestimated. However, during recent years, the development of SFC has taken a new direction, moving back to the packed columns. Quite promising results have thus been obtained with such columns, and it seems that the potential advantages of the SFC technique finally are becoming accessible.