by
krickos » Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:38 am
On a second thought, changing the length of the column might result in poor separation of analytes. Forgot to think about L earlier.
But, when L is changed, N is chnaged and so no change in H. So, only diameter and file thicknes change can be done. Disadvantage is on the rentention factor (capacity factor).
Need to partly correct myself and extend a bit:
No it is not true that H is unchanged if L is for exampled doubled because the doubled L do not give you twice the amount of N. If you read up further you will find and extended resolution formula thats goes like: Rs=(squareN/4)(alpa-1/aplpha)(k´/1+k´). So doubling the L will gain you much less N then you expected.
Your initial question confused me a bit (increasing H?) you typically want to do the oposite ie higher N per L which leads to a lower H.
In GC (WCOT) increasing L alone is usually only timeconsuming and give little payback but sometimes work for your application. If combined with other changes you can gain more.
To lower H its is usually more effective (or in combination with lowering/increasing L) to improve the B and C factors in the van deemter equation. B mean optimising the gas flow (cm/s) for your carrier gas typically a few cm/s above otimum for your gas (provided GC can do constant flow).
C means speeding up equilibrums, like thinner phase (optimized flow also helps here), smaller ID.