Theoretical Plate N Estimate for Real Samples - HPLC Primer
One can estimate a reasonable plate number for any column as:
N ≈ 300 L/d p
L is the column length (in millimeters) and dp is the particle diameter (in micrometers ).
For example for 250 mm x 4.6 mm column packed with 5 micron particles, the predicted value is
N ≈ 15,000
If the measured value of N is about 20% of this predicted value, the column is in good conditions.
