Jan Soukup

Dual hydrophilic interaction-RP retention mechanism on polar columns: Structural correlations and implementation for 2-D separations on a single column

We investigated the retention of phenolic acid and flavone antioxidants on five polar columns in buffered aqueous ACN mobile phases. All columns show mixed retention mechanism: RP in highly aqueous mobile phases and normal phase (hydrophilic interaction LC, HILIC) in mobile phases with high concentration of ACN. The Silica Hydride and the ZIC HILIC sulfobetaine zwitterionic columns show rather limited retention in the RP mode. The Luna HILIC column shows higher retention in both the HILIC and the RP modes in comparison to the PEG and DIOL columns. We characterized the selectivity of various HILIC systems using linear solvation energy relationship model with molecular structure descriptors characterizing selective molecular size, dipole-dipole and proton-donor/proton-acceptor interactions and we investigated the effects of the mobile phase composition on the linear solvation energy relationship characteristics of the separation phase systems to select suitable conditions for orthogonal HILIC separations in combination with RP systems. Dual retention mechanism offers possibilities for using complementary selectivity in the HILIC and the RP modes for sequential 2-D separations of natural antioxidants on a single Luna HILIC column. Column equilibration time of 15 min between alternating RP and HILIC gradient runs is sufficient for reproducible results.

Gradient elution in aqueous normal-phase liquid chromatography on hydrosilated silica-based stationary phases

The possibility of applying a theoretical model in the prediction of the retention of phenolic acids on hydrosilated silica, in aqueous normal phase mode was studied. The actual gradient of the aqueous component in acetonitrile may fluctuate from the pre-set program, as even the gradient-grade acetonitrile contains some water. Hence, the actual concentration of water during the gradient run is higher than pre-set by the gradient program, which leads to lower than expected sample retention. Furthermore, the actual gradient profile may be affected by an increase in water uptake on a polar column during the gradient run. These effects were investigated using the using frontal analysis method and Karl-Fischer titration, for the determination of water in the initial mobile phase, and in the column effluent. Preferential adsorption of water on the Silica hydride, Diamond hydride, UDC Cholesterol, Bidentate C18, and Phenyl hydride columns can be described by Langmuir isotherms. At the column saturation capacity, less than one monomolecular water layer is adsorbed, with a further decrease in coverage density for modified materials. Parameters of semi-logarithmic and logarithmic model equations, describing the dependence of retention factor on the concentration of water, were determined under isocratic conditions. These parameters and linear gradient profiles corrected for the actual water concentrations were used in calculation of gradient retention data. The corrections for the actual water concentration greatly improved the agreement between the experiment and the predicted gradient elution volumes. Generally, the semi-logarithmic model provides slightly better prediction of the gradient data, with respect to the logarithmic retention model.

Adsorption of water from aqueous acetonitrile on silica-based stationary phases in aqueous normal-phase liquid chromatography

Excess adsorption of water from aqueous acetonitrile mobile phases was investigated on 16 stationary phases using the frontal analysis method and coulometric Karl-Fischer titration. The stationary phases include silica gel and silica-bonded phases with different polarities, octadecyl and cholesterol, phenyl, nitrile, pentafluorophenylpropyl, diol and zwitterionic sulfobetaine and phosphorylcholine ligands bonded on silica, hybrid organic-silica and hydrosilated matrices. Both fully porous and core-shell column types were included. Preferential uptake of water by the columns can be described by Langmuir isotherms. Even though a diffuse rather than a compact adsorbed discrete layer of water on the adsorbent surface can be formed because of the unlimited miscibility of water with acetonitrile, for convenience, the preferentially adsorbed water was expressed in terms of a hypothetical monomolecular water layer equivalent in the inner pores. The uptake of water strongly depends on the polarity and type of the column. Less than one monomolecular water layer equivalent was adsorbed on moderate polar silica hydride-based stationary phases, Ascentis Express F5 and Ascentis Express CN column at the saturation capacity, while on more polar stationary phases, several water layer equivalents were up-taken from the mobile phase. The strongest affinity to water was observed on the ZIC cHILIC stationary phases, where more than nine water layer equivalents were adsorbed onto its surface at its saturation capacity. Columns with bonded hydroxyl and diol ligands show stronger water adsorption in comparison to bare silica. Columns based on hydrosilated silica generally show significantly decreased water uptake in comparison to stationary phases bonded on ordinary silica. Significant correlations were found between the water uptake and the separation selectivity for compounds with strong polarity differences.

The influence of the organic modifier in hydro-organic mobile phase on separation selectivity of steroid hormones separation using cholesterol-bonded stationary phases

Chromatographic properties of four cholesterol bonded phases with different structures were studied. The columns used were packed with a stationary phase containing a cholesterol molecule attached to the silica surface using different types of linkage molecules. Columns were compared according to the retention and separation selectivity of steroid hormones. The measurements were done using binary hydro-organic mobile phases with methanol, ethanol and acetonitrile as an organic modifier. The presented results show that the coverage density of the bonded ligands and the type of organic modifier strongly influence the retention mechanism and separation selectivity of steroid hormones on cholesterol-containing adsorbents.

Comparison of nonaqueous hydrophilic interaction chromatography with aqueous normal‐phase chromatography on hydrosilated silica‐based stationary phases

We investigated the retention behavior of phenolic acids in nonaqueous normal-phase (NP) LC with buffered methanol/acetonitrile mobile phases on hydrosilated silica-based stationary phases. The silica hydride, Diamond hydride, Bidentate C18, and Cholesterol columns showed a higher retention of phenolic acids in the nonaqueous mobile phases than in aqueous NP mobile phases. There are some selectivity differences between the aqueous and nonaqueous mobile phases, but generally the resolution and selectivity are better in the aqueous systems. The retention of the phenolic acids tested decreased with increasing concentration of methanol in the mobile phase, up to 20% v/v methanol. At increased temperatures, the retention factors and peak widths decrease in both NP modes, showing linear ln k versus 1/T plots, due to a single retention mechanism over the temperature range from 25°C up to the column stability limit, however, the best separations are achieved at low temperatures. The enthalpic and entropic contributions to the retention were determined, and the differences between the aqueous and nonaqueous modes are possibly due to the adsorbed water layer.

Thermodynamics Study of Solvent Adsorption on Octadecyl-Modified Silica

Elution and solvation processes in liquid chromatography may be controlled by temperature changes. In the case of solvent adsorption, the temperature influences the amount of adsorbed solvent as well as the enthalpy and entropy of the solvation process. In this work, the thermodynamic parameters of organic solvents used as organic modifiers in the reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography elution process were determined. The changes of enthalpy and entropy in a series of chemically bonded stationary phases were measured to determine the effects of the temperature and surface coverage density of octadecyl ligands on the thermodynamic parameters of the solvation. For both the enthalpy and entropy a parabolic trend was observed with the minimum for medium surface coverage. The correlation of solvent adsorption values with the enthalpy of solvation was also investigated. The highest influence of the temperature on solvation process was observed for stationary phases with high surface coverage.

Comparison of four cholesterol-based stationary phases for the separation of steroid hormones

The chromatographic behavior of steroid hormones on four cholesterol-bonded stationary phases with different structures in binary methanol/water mobile phases was studied. Of the stationary phases tested, the commercially available stationary phases Cogent UDC cholesterol™ and COSMOSIL cholester™ provided better separations of steroid hormones in comparison to homemade aminocholesterol and diaminocholesterol stationary phases. The results show that the temperature has a significant influence on the retention and selectivity for steroid hormones separation. The temperature increase may cause changes in the elution order. From the dependences of the retention (ln k) on temperature (1/T), the standard partial molar enthalpy and standard partial molar entropy were calculated and their enthalpic and entropic contributions to the retention were compared. The enthalpic effects principally control the retention mechanism.