Liquid chromatography systems

1. A liquid chromatographic (LC) system comprising at least one fluidic stream, the fluidic stream comprising:

a sample-injection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including a sample input port fluidically connected to a sample input nozzle, an aspiration/dispensing-pump port fluidically connected to a sample aspiration pump, a sample-loop-input port and a sample-loop-output port interconnected by a sample loop, an LC-pump port fluidically connected to an LC pump and a sample-injection-to-trap-bypass-selection port;

a trap-bypass-selection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including a trap-bypass-selection-to-sample-injection port fluidically connected to the sample-injection-to-trap-bypass-selection port of the sample injection valve, two bypass ports interconnected by a bypass fluidic path, a trap-bypass-selection-to-column-bypass port and two trap-bypass-selection-to-load-elute ports;

a column-bypass valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including a column-bypass-to-trap-bypass-selection port fluidically connected to the trap-bypass-selection-to-column-bypass port of the trap-bypass-selection valve, at least one pair of LC-columns ports interconnected by an LC analytical column, two bypass ports interconnected by a bypass fluidic path and an analytical output port;

a load-elute valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including two load-elute-to-trap-bypass-selection ports fluidically connected to the trap-bypass-selection-to-load-elute ports respectively of the trap-bypass-selection valve, an LC-pump port fluidically connected to an LC pump, a waste port fluidically connected to a waste, and two load-elute-to-trap-selection ports;

a trap-selection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including two trap-selection-to-load-elute ports fluidically connected to the load-elute-to-trap-selection ports respectively of the load-elute valve, at least one pair of trap-column ports interconnected by a trap column.

2. The LC system according to claim 1 wherein the column-bypass valve is an LC-column selection valve to select between HPLC or UHPLC columns and comprising a plurality of pairs of LC-column ports, wherein each pair can be interconnected by a HPLC or UHPLC column and/or wherein the trap-selection valve is a trap-column selection valve to select between trap-columns and comprising a plurality of pairs of trap-column ports, wherein each pair can be interconnected by a trap-column.

3. The LC system according to claim 1 further comprising a controller configured to switch the sample-injection valve, the trap-bypass-selection valve, the column-bypass valve, the load-elute valve and the trap-selection valve of the same fluidic stream between any one of a continuous-flow-infusion/dilute-shoot mode, a trap-elute mode, an LC mode and a trap-elute-LC mode.

4. The LC system according to claim 3 wherein the continuous-flow-infusion/dilute-shoot mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between the sample-injection-to-trap-bypass-selection port of the sample-injection valve and the analytical output port of the column-bypass valve via the bypass fluidic path connected to the trap-bypass-selection valve and the bypass fluidic path connected to the column-bypass valve.

5. The LC system according to claim 3 wherein the trap-elute mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between a trap column connected to the trap-selection valve and the analytical output port of the column-bypass valve via the trap-selection valve, the load-elute valve and the bypass fluidic path connected to the column-bypass valve.

6. The LC system according to claim 3 wherein the LC mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between the sample-injection-to-trap-bypass-selection port of the sample-injection valve and the analytical output port of the column-bypass valve via the bypass fluidic path connected to the trap-bypass-selection valve and an LC column connected to the column-bypass valve.

7. The LC system according to claim 3 wherein the trap-elute-LC mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between a trap column connected to the trap-selection valve and the analytical output port of the column-bypass valve via the trap-selection valve, the load-elute valve, the trap-bypass-selection valve and an LC column connected to the column-bypass valve.

8. A liquid chromatographic (LC) system comprising at least one fluidic stream, the fluidic stream comprising a first substream and a second substream,

the first substream comprising:

a first sample-injection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including a sample input port fluidically connected to a sample input nozzle, an aspiration/dispensing-pump port fluidically connected to a sample aspiration pump, a sample-loop-input port and a sample-loop-output port interconnected by a sample loop, an LC-pump port fluidically connected to an LC pump and a sample-injection-to-load-elute port;

a load-elute valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including a load-elute-to-sample-injection port fluidically connected to the sample-injection-to-load-elute port of the first sample-injection port, an LC-pump port fluidically connected to an LC pump, a waste port fluidically connected to a waste, an analytical output port and two load-elute-to-trap-selection ports;

a trap-selection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including two trap-selection-to-load-elute ports fluidically connected to the load-elute-to-trap-selection ports respectively of the load-elute valve, at least one pair of trap-column ports interconnected by a trap column, and two trap-selection-to-trap-LC-transfer ports;

the second substream comprising:

a second sample-injection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including a sample input port fluidically connected to a sample input nozzle, an aspiration/dispensing-pump port fluidically connected to a sample aspiration pump, a sample-loop-input port and a sample-loop-output port interconnected by a sample loop, an LC-pump port fluidically connected to an LC pump and a sample-injection-to-trap-LC-transfer port;

a column-bypass valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including at least one pair of LC-columns ports interconnected by an LC analytical column, two bypass ports interconnected by a bypass fluidic path, an analytical output port, and a column-bypass-to-trap-LC-transfer port;

the fluidic stream further comprising:

a trap-LC substream transfer valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports, including one pair of trap-column ports interconnected by a trap column, two trap-LC-transfer-to-trap-selection ports fluidically connected to the two trap-selection-to-trap-LC-transfer ports respectively of the trap-selection valve, a trap-LC-transfer-to-column-bypass port fluidically connected to the column-bypass-to-trap-LC-transfer port of the column-bypass valve and a trap-LC-transfer-to-sample-injection port fluidically connected to the sample-injection-to-trap-LC-transfer port of the second sample injection valve;

a substream-selection valve comprising a plurality of ports and a multi-way switch to switch fluidic connections between ports comprising a substream-selection-to-load-elute port fluidically connected to the analytical output port of the load-elute valve, a substream-selection-to-column-bypass port fluidically connected to the analytical output port of the column-bypass valve, and a substream-selection-analytical-output port.

9. The LC system according to claim 8 wherein the column-bypass valve is an LC-column selection valve to select between HPLC or UHPLC columns and comprising a plurality of pairs of LC-column ports, wherein each pair can be interconnected by a HPLC or UHPLC column and/or wherein the trap-selection valve is a trap-column selection valve to select between trap-columns and comprising a plurality of pairs of trap-column ports, wherein each pair can be interconnected by a trap-column.

10. The LC system according to claim 8 further comprising a controller configured to switch the first sample-injection valve, the load-elute valve, the trap-selection valve, the second sample-injection valve, the column-bypass valve, the trap-LC substream transfer valve and the substream-selection valve between any one of a continuous-flow-infusion/dilute-shoot mode, a trap-elute mode, an LC mode, a trap-elute-LC mode.

11. The LC system according to claim 10 wherein the continuous-flow-infusion/dilute-shoot mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between the sample-injection-to-trap-LC-transfer port of the second sample-injection valve and the substream-selection-analytical-output port of the substream-selection valve via the trap-LC substream transfer valve and the bypass fluidic path connected to the column-bypass valve.

12. The LC system according to claim 10 wherein the trap-elute mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between a trap column connected to the trap-selection valve and the substream-selection-analytical-output port of the substream-selection valve via the load-elute valve.

13. The LC system according to claim 10 wherein the LC mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between the sample-injection-to-trap-LC-transfer port of the second sample-injection valve and the substream-selection-analytical-output port of the substream-selection valve via the trap-LC substream transfer valve and via an LC column connected to the column-bypass valve.

14. The LC system according to claim 10 wherein the trap-elute-LC mode comprises a switch status in which there is a direct fluidic connection between the trap column connected to the trap-LC substream transfer valve and the substream-selection-analytical-output port of the substream-selection valve via an LC column connected to the column-bypass valve.