3D printing of chromatographic columns: what impact will this produce in downstream processing?

The advent of 3D printing has been described as the 4th industrial revolution. The impact of 3D printing has implications in practically all industrial areas, ranging from manufacturing to food, from biomedicine to nanofabrication. Thanks to its practically endless capabilities, many new applications of 3D printing continue to emerge with an exponential trend.

3D printing has been recently considered for the fabrication of porous media as stationary phases for chromatographic separations. As opposite to traditional media endowed with random flow patterns, 3D printing enables the a priori design and manufacture of perfectly ordered media with enhanced separation characteristics.

Recent advances of 3D printed chromatography media will be presented in this contribution. New morphology designs suitable for chromatographic separations will be proposed, and their performance discussed from both experimental and modelling standpoints. These new designs will be compared against standard random packing of spheres, demonstrating the superior characteristics of perfectly ordered media over conventional packed beds.