Chromatographers are always looking for solutions that will deliver more resolution and more robust separations. To meet this need for higher efficiency, Waters developed the new 150 mm length ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH columns. With these new longer length ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH columns, challenging analytical assays such as impurity profiles and metabolite ID separations can be routinely run with resolutions not previously available with HPLC columns.
The resolving power of an LC column can be expressed by its Length to Particle Size Ratio (L/dp). Columns with the highest L/dp ratios provide greater efficiencies (N) and are normally used in the most difficult separations. The L/dp ratio of the new 150 mm length ACQUITY UPLC™ BEH columns is more than 88,000, thus producing efficiencies of 35,000 plates per separation. As a point of reference, a 4.6 x 150 mm HPLC column which contains 5 μm particles has an L/dp ratio of 30,000 and can produce efficiencies of only 12,000 plates.