Abstract
Using a specially treated glass capillary, evaporation of the solvent during large volume injection into a precolumn was visually investigated in order to better understand the solvent trapping process. Using an early vapor exit, the process differs from the classical description of solvent trapping. First, there is a substantial pressure drop over the solvent-coated ('flooded') precolumn, causing evaporation to take place not only at the rear edge, but also within the flooded zone or at its front end (which may result in almost complete loss of volatile solutes). Secondly, the evaporation rate increases as the liquid enters deeper into the precolumn, eventually turning partially concurrent evaporation into a fully concurrent evaporation with massive loss of volatiles. Thirdly, the capacity of the precolumn to retain liquid is substantially higher than observed in systems without early vapor exit.