Review ContentsTheory and Fundamental Measurements 4606 Mobile Phases and (Achiral) Stationary Phases 4607 Instrumentation, Techniques, and Performance 4609 Preparative Separations 4609 Detection 4609 Applications 4610 Food-Related Applications 4610 Natural Products 4610 Fossil Fuels 4610 Synthetic Oligomers, Polymers, and Polymer Additives 4610 Achiral Pharmaceuticals and Bioactive Compounds 4611 Chiral Applications 4611 Literature Cited 4612Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and related unified chromatography techniques using compressible, solvating fluids and conventional liquids at high or ultrahigh temperatures continue to grow in use. However, continuing the trend in recent years, there has been a further decrease in fundamental work and in the number of published research articles.Despite this, interest among end users continues to grow, particularly in pharmaceutical applications. Pharmaceutical researchers also continue to lead in publishing applications, perhaps reflecting the higher importance placed on publication in this business than in most others.During this review period, one analytical instrument supplier (for whom SFC was a minor product area) left the business, but another supplier, one fully dedicated to this field, enthusiastically joined. Growth also continues in the preparative SFC area and in materials processing using supercritical and related fluids, and this is expected to continue stimulating analytical applications.As in the past, we have made a very loose interpretation of the term "supercritical" for the purposes of selecting articles to cite (and in keeping with the underlying unified chromatography theme) and have included any solvating fluid that is used in either condensed or supercritical form at a temperature above its normal vaporization temperature or above the usual temperature range of conventional HPLC. We resume from our last report (1) and have examined the literature abstracted in the ISI Current Contents Connect (http://isicc.com/CCC.cgi) database through November, 2003. We found about 200 articles from which we have cited a fraction, representative of recent progress.
THEORY AND FUNDAMENTAL MEASUREMENTSSeveral general reviews appeared that may be useful to people new to the field (2-4). Dominguez et al. presented a revision of the 1993 IUPAC Nomenclature for Chromatography that addresses hold-up volume and the physical meaning of several terms (5). The measurement and meaning of hold-up times and volumes as well as derived parameters, such as solute retention factor in an SFC instrument or other chromatographic system in which the mobile phase is compressible, solvent strength changes with mobile-phase density, and pressure and temperature change longitudinally along the column, will require some additional attention.Amines have been successfully determined by SFC techniques for years, but there has been uncertainty if or when amines react with CO 2 , if the peaks actually migrating through a column under SFC conditions are the original amines or something els...