Why ultra high performance liquid chromatography produces more tailing peaks than high performance liquid chromatography, why it does not matter and how it can be addressed

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate, with experiments and with computer simulations based on a firm chromatographic theory, that the wide spread perception of that the United States Pharmacopeia tailing factor must be lower than 2 (Tf < 2) is questionable when using the latest generation of LC equipment. It is shown that highly efficient LC separations like those obtained with sub-2 μm porous and 2.7 μm superficially porous particles (UHPLC) produce significantly higher Tf-values than the corresponding separation based on 3 μm porous particles (HPLC) when the same amount of sample is injected. Still UHPLC separations provide a better resolution to adjacent peaks. Expressions have been derived that describe how the Tf-value changes with particle size or number of theoretical plates. Expressions have also been derived that can be used to scale the injection volume based on particle size or number of theoretical plates to maintain the Tf-value when translating a HPLC separation to the corresponding UHPLC separation. An aspect that has been ignored in previous publications. Finally, data obtained from columns with different age/condition indicate that Tf-values should be complemented by a peak width measure to provide a more objective quality measure.