Detailed characterisation of the flow resistance of commercial sub-2 μm reversed-phase columns

The pressure-drop characteristics of six sub-2 μm columns of three different manufacturers but with the same surface chemistry (C18) have been studied using the recently introduced total pore blocking method for the determination of the external porosity and by using scanning electron microscopy pictures to measure the actual size of the particles. Having used the Sauter-mean particle size to correctly account for the particle size spread, and having corrected for the influence of the intra-particle porosity, it was found that all columns yielded Kozeny–Carman constant (fKC) values close to 180, in agreement with the theory. This agreement could subsequently be used to quantify how the different system parameters such as mean particle size, packing density and intra-particle porosity (all tending to vary significantly from manufacturer to manufacturer) each contributes to the observed total bed permeability. Small (upward) deviations from the fKC = 180-value could be correlated to a larger width of the particle size distribution, and more notably to the existence of a high size ratio of the largest to the smallest particles present in the particle batches.