A major drawback of column switching is volume overload of analytical column caused by large volume of eluents, especially the eluents containing high organic content required to achieve a narrow elution profile. Peak broadening and distortion is usually observed, which results in lower theoretical plates, worse reproducibility and lower sensitivity. To overcome this common problem, peak focusing methods have been developed based on trapping of analytes at the head of analytical columns by diluting eluents with weak solvents (e.g., aqueous solvents for reversedphase LC). The dilution can efficiently decrease the eluotropic strength of eluents, facilitating the focusing of analytes on the stationary
phase at the column head. Two typical configurations of online post-elution dilution are illustrated in Fig. 7(A and B): one is to perform the dilution in a valve (Fig. 7A); the other is to perform the dilution in a mixing tee (Fig. 7B). The former design (Fig. 7A) was firstly proposed for the online SPE-LC systems using turbulent flow chromatography (TFC) columns as extraction columns [138–141]. TFC columns are packed with large and porous stationary particles,
which can be combined with high flow rate of mobile phase to exhibit turbulent flow properties.