Design and fabrication through additive manufacturing of devices for multidimensional LC based on computational insights

One-dimensional column-based liquid chromatography systems do not offer sufficient separation power for the analysis of complex samples. Two-dimensional systems are more powerful. However, they suffer from longer analysis times. Spatial multi-dimensional liquid chromatography may prove an efficient solution, as the peak capacity of the system is ideally the product of those of the individual dimensions, yet the analysis time remains relatively short due to parallel separations. The main aspects we need to investigate for such devices include flow uniformity, analyte transfer between dimensions, band broadening, and confinement of the flow in each dimension.
The objectives of this thesis were to study the effects of design, fabrication and operation factors on the performance of the device. For this purpose, both simulations and experiments were conducted. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to calculate flow and mass transfer and injections of a mixture of dye and water were simulated. Prototypes were fabricated using 3D-printing, more specifically, stereolithography. Flow confinement, analyte transfer, band broadening and pressure resistance of devices were studied.
Feasible designs were proposed for two- and three-dimensional spatial LC devices, using either passive flow confinement based on permeability differences or active flow confinement based on an approach that was patented during this work. Various other applications of 3D-printing in analytical sciences were also studied.