Comprehensive two-dimensional separations using microcolumns

The late Professor John B. Phillips has been the leading pioneer in developing the fundamental theory, instrumentation, and appreciation of comprehensive multidimensional separations. The comprehensive approach to high resolution separations easily surpasses any other approaches to achieving extremely high peak capacity. The practical implementation of comprehensive multidimensional techniques places the highest demands on performance of the separate dimensions in terms of speed, sensitivity, and reproducibility. In this paper, the history, requirements, instrumentation, and applications of comprehensive two-dimensional column separations are reviewed. Combinations of GC×GC, SFC×GC, SFE×GC, LC×LC, LC×CE, and ITP×CE are described, since these are the major comprehensive multidimensional techniques reported to date.