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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
InventorYoichiro Ito
Estimating the term…
A method and apparatus for continuous countercurrent chromatography employing a coiled column array slowly rotating about its axis, mounted on a frame which can be angularly adjusted to a desirable angle. The column can be filled with a stationary phase liquid and eluted with a mobile phase liquid by means of a pump; solute can be introduced through a sample port. The mobile phase liquid and sample are introduced through a first rotating seal. An outlet line leading to a monitor and fraction collector is connected to the column array through a second rotating seal. When the column array is filled with the stationary phase and is eluted with the mobile phase in the proper direction, nearly half of the stationary phase may be retained while constantly mixed with the mobile phase; consequently, solutes introduced through the sample port are subjected to an efficient partition process and are separated according to their relative partition coefficients.
An apparatus for continuous countercurrent chromatography comprising a support, frame means pivoted to said support for rotary adjustment around a transverse horizontal axis, a separation column comprising a helical tube array and journalled on said frame means for rotation around an axis perpendicular to said horizontal pivotal axis, drive means on said frame means drivingly connected to said separation column for rotating the column, feed conduit means for introducing fluids to one end of said separation column, fluid monitoring means, and delivery conduit means connecting the other end of said separation column to said fluid monitoring means.
A method of countercurrent chromatography comprising the steps of filling a rotary separation column comprising a helical tube array through a feed conduit with a first solvent, said separation column having a longitudinal axis of rotation, the feed conduit being located along said axis, rotating the column at a slow rate, introducing a sample solute to be separated into said column through said feed conduit, pumping a second solvent immiscible with said first solvent into the slowly rotating separation column, and spectrographically monitoring the separating solute fractions leaving the separation column.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.