By providing the ability to precisely vary mobile phase strength, pressure, and temperature, the Waters ACQUITY UPC² System gives scientists the power to better control the retention of analytes for separating, detecting, and quantifying structural analogs, isomers, and enantiomeric  and diasteriomeric mixtures.

With its separation potential for a far broader chemical spectrum of applications than that of reversed-phase LC-based instrumentation, the ACQUITY UPC² System leverages convergence chromatography to enable superior performance, using inexpensive, compressed CO₂ as a non-toxic mobile phase.

Harnessing what's now known as convergence chromatography, an evolution of the traditional SFC technique, the ACQUITY UPC² System has the power to create selective separations of structurally similar chiral and achiral compounds.

 The miscibility of CO₂ with a wide range of polar and non-polar organic solvents has made the liquid CO₂-based mobile phase versatile enough to separate a much wider range of compounds than reversed-phase LC, especially for mixtures containing polar compounds. Not only can CO₂-based solvents be used with both polar and non-polar stationary phases, but chromatography can be influenced by modulating solvent gradients with a much wider choice of columns using the same mass spectrometry-compatible co-solvents.

Being orthogonal to reversed-phase LC, UPC² separations often show an inverse order of elution among groups of analytes. In combination with various detection techniques, this orthogonality is valuable for confirming analyte identity in complex matrices.