Performance of the Agilent 1100 Series preparative pump at low flow rates Technical Note

The Agilent 1100 Series preparative pump1,2 forms the basis of the Agilent 1100 Series purification system. It is an isocratic high performance pump with dual piston design for a flow rate range of 5–100 ml/min at 400 bar. To form a gradient system two pumps have to be combined. The extremely small delay volume (figure 1) of the mixer and the attached capillaries, about 0.7 ml, allows fast and steep gradients over a wide flow rate range. Since automated re-analysis of collected fractions is possible with this system it is important that the pump also performs well at flow rates below the specified range.