High-speed countercurrent chromatography

Abstract

During the past 20 years countercurrent chromatography (CCC) has been steadily improved in both partition efficiency and separation times.^1-15 The original helix CCC and the successively developed nonhelix preparative-scale CCC schemes, such as droplet CCC^16,17 and locular CCC,¹⁷ required relatively long separating times; sizeable separation usually exceeded 24 hr. During the last decade, development of various flow-through centrifuge schemes, such as the flow-through coil planet centrifuge^18,19 (CPC), angle rotor CPC,²⁰ elution centrifuge,²¹ horizontal flow-through CPC,^22-26 toroidal CPC,^27,28 and nonsynchronous flow-through CPC,^29-31 has substantially shortened the separation times so that efficient separations became possible with overnight runs.