Femtoliter Chromatography Using Extended Nanochannel toward Million Plate Numbers: Design Method and Its Verification

We designed pressure driven chromatography system using 100 nm scale nanofluidic channel (extended nanochannel) for million plate numbers. The chromatography was performed utilizing a channel in an equivalent diameter of 300 nm and 89 mm long (the world’s longest nanochannel) with 35 fL injection volume. The theoretical plate numbers 36,000 were well accorded with theoreticallyestimated 39,000. From these results, performance of the system was verified, and it has potential to realize 1,000,000 plates for protein separation. This technique will be a revolutionary tool for comprehensive analysis of ultra-small biological samples such as single cells and bacteria.