M.J. Ruiz-Angel
University of Valencia
Network
Latest external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.
Publication
Featured researches published by M.J. Ruiz-Angel.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2011
J.J. Fernández-Navarro; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque; M.J. Ruiz-Angel
The cationic nature of basic drugs gives rise to broad asymmetrical chromatographic peaks with conventional C18 columns and hydro-organic mixtures, due to the ionic interaction of the positively charged solutes with the free silanol groups on the alkyl-bonded reversed-phase packing. Ionic liquids (ILs) have recently attracted some attention to reduce this undesirable silanol activity. ILs are dual modifiers (with a cationic and anionic character), which means that both cation and anion can be adsorbed on the stationary phase, giving rise to interesting interactions with the anionic free silanols and the cationic basic drugs. A comparative study of the performance of four imidazolium-based ILs as modifiers of the chromatographic behaviour of a group of β-blockers is shown. The ILs differed in the adsorption capability of the cation and anion on C18 columns. Mobile phases without additive and containing a cationic (triethylamine, TEA) or anionic (sodium dodecyl sulphate, SDS) additive were used as references for the interpretation of the behaviours. The changes in the nature of the chromatographic system, at increasing concentration of the additives, were followed based on the changes in retention and peak shape of the β-blockers. The silanol suppressing potency of the additives, and the association constants between the solutes and modified stationary phase or additive in the mobile phase, were estimated. The study revealed that SDS and the ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate are the best enhancers of chromatographic peak shape among those studied.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2013
J.J. Baeza-Baeza; M.J. Ruiz-Angel; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque; Samuel Carda-Broch
Peak profiles in chromatography are characterised by their height, position, width and asymmetry; the two latter depend on the values of the left and right peak half-widths. Simple correlations have been found between the peak half-widths and the retention times. The representation of such correlations has been called half-width plots. For isocratic elution, the plots are parabolic, although often, the parabolas can be approximated to straight-lines. The plots can be obtained with the half-widths/retention time data for a set of solutes experiencing the same kinetics, eluted with a mobile phase at fixed or varying composition. When the analysed solutes experience different resistance to mass transfer, the plots will be solute dependent, and should be obtained with the data for each solute eluted with mobile phases at varying composition. The half-width plots approach is a simple tool that facilitates the prediction of peak shape (width and asymmetry) with optimisation purposes, reveal the interaction kinetics of solutes in different columns, and characterise chromatographic columns. This work shows half-width plots for different situations in isocratic elution, including the use of different flows, the effect of temperature, the modification of the stationary phase surface by an additive, the existence of specific interactions within the column, and the comparison of columns. The adaptation to gradient elution is also described. Previous knowledge on half-width plots is structured and analysed, to which new results are added.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2015
M.T. Ubeda-Torres; C. Ortiz-Bolsico; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque; M.J. Ruiz-Angel
In reversed-phase liquid chromatography in the absence of additives, cationic basic compounds give rise to broad and asymmetrical peaks as a result of ionic interactions with residual free silanols on silica-based stationary phases. Ionic liquids (ILs), added to the mobile phase, have been suggested as alternatives to amines to block the activity of silanols. However, the dual character of ILs should be considered: both cation and anion may be adsorbed on the stationary phase, thereby creating a double asymmetrical layer positively or negatively charged, depending on the relative adsorption of both ions. In this work, a study of the performance of six imidazolium-based ILs (the chlorides and tetrafluoroborates of 1-ethyl-, 1-butyl- and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium) as modifiers of the chromatographic behaviour of a group of 10 β-blockers is performed, and compared with triethylamine and dimethyloctylamine. In order to gain more insight in the behaviour of ILs in RPLC, the changes in the nature of the chromatographic system, at increasing concentration of the additives, were followed based on retention and peak shape modelling. The multiple interactions that amines and ILs experience inside the chromatographic system suggest that the suppressing potency should be measured based on the shape of chromatographic peaks and not on the changes in retention. The ILs 1-hexyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride and tetrafluoroborate offered the most interesting features for the separation of the basic drugs.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2013
C. Ortiz-Bolsico; J.R. Torres-Lapasió; M.J. Ruiz-Angel; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque
Although there is a great deal of stationary phases having different selectivities (even practically orthogonal selectivities), these very rarely are taken as a factor to be optimized during method development. The chromatographer selects the stationary phase usually in a trial-and-error fashion (or based on the solute nature and expected interactions), and then optimizes continuous factors as the mobile phase composition, pH, temperature and flow-rate. However, the optimization of the stationary phase nature and column length (which are discrete factors) may be interesting. In this regard, the optimization of the coupling of individual columns may yield separations that are not possible with a single column, based on the combined selectivities and the potential increase in plate count. The idea is highly attractive, but there are only few reports in the literature using this approach. The theory behind the use of serially coupled columns is indeed rather simple, but its implementation may be troublesome. The most problematic factor is the connection of the serial columns, which ideally should not modify the result of the sum of behaviors of the columns. A proper serial connection of columns needs a zero-dead volume (ZDV) union and a system to link tightly the columns to each other. In this work, two different approaches to solve this problem are compared using isocratic elution, one consisting in the use of holders, which are screwed to maintain attached the columns linked by ZDV junctions, and the other using ZDV fingertight column couplers, which are screwed directly to the columns maintaining them tightly attached without the need of column holders. The advantages and problems associated to these approaches are described, and information on the accuracy in the prediction of retention times, peak widths and asymmetries are given for the combined columns. Guidelines to prepare software to make reliable predictions are also presented. A set of 15 sulphonamides were used to probe the systems.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2012
J.J. Fernández-Navarro; J.R. Torres-Lapasió; M.J. Ruiz-Angel; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque
Residual silanols on C18 columns yield undesirable slow-kinetics ion-exchange interactions with positively charged basic compounds that result in asymmetrical peaks, low efficiencies and long retention times. The purity of the silica employed as supporting material, and the technique used to form the bonded phase, which varies with the brand and manufacturer, give rise to different amounts of residual silanols in the packings, and consequently, different chromatographic performance. One of the most efficient and widespread strategies to reduce or even eliminate the different performance among columns is the addition of a reagent to the mobile phase to block the silanol sites. However, the intrinsic nature of both stationary phase and additive leads to particular results. In this work, a group of basic compounds were analysed using six C18 stationary phases (Zorbax SB-C18, X-Terra MS C18, Kromasil, Lichrospher, Nucleosil, and Spherisorb) and acetonitrile-water mixtures. Two ionic liquids (ILs), 1-butyl- and 1-hexyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborates, were added to the mobile phases to evaluate their silanol suppressing potency, based on the decreased retention of the basic compounds when the silanols are blocked (described by the Horváth equation), and the improvement in peak profile (described by the plots of the peak half-widths at diverse retention times). The suppressing potency based on the retention can be misleading when the adsorption of the IL anion is not negligible, since the anion attracts the cationic basic compounds increasing the retention. However, the accessibility of basic compounds to the silanols is prevented by both IL cation and anion, improving the peak profiles for all stationary phases. This was especially remarkable for Spherisorb, which in the absence of additive yielded by far the worst performance. 1-Hexyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate was the best additive in terms of retention and peak profile (width and asymmetry).
Journal of Chromatography A | 2014
J. Rodenas-Montano; C. Ortiz-Bolsico; M.J. Ruiz-Angel; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque
In micellar liquid chromatography (MLC), chromatographic peaks are more evenly distributed compared to conventional reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). This is the reason that most procedures are implemented using isocratic elution. However, gradient elution may be still useful in MLC to analyse mixtures of compounds within a wide range of polarities, decreasing the analysis time. Also, it benefits the determination of moderately to low polar compounds in physiological fluids performing direct injection: an initial micellar eluent with a low organic solvent content, or a pure micellar (without surfactant) solution, will provide better protection of the column against the proteins in the physiological fluid, and once the proteins are swept away, the elution strength can be increased using a positive linear gradient of organic solvent to reduce the analysis time. This work aims to encourage analysts to implement gradients of organic solvent in MLC, which is rather simple and allows rapid analytical procedures without pre-treatment or the need of re-equilibration. The implementation of gradient elution is illustrated through the separation of eight basic compounds (β-blockers) in urine samples directly injected into the chromatograph, the most hydrophobic showing large retention in both conventional RPLC and MLC. The use of the DryLab(®) software to optimise gradients of organic solvent with eluents containing a fixed amount of surfactant above the critical micellar concentration is shown to provide satisfactory predictions, and can facilitate greatly the implementation of gradient protocols.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2014
M.J. Ruiz-Angel; S. Pous-Torres; Samuel Carda-Broch; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque
Column selection in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) can become a challenge if the target compounds interact with the silica-based packing. One of such interactions is the attraction of cationic solutes to the free silanols in silica-based columns, which is a slow sorption-desorption interaction process that gives rise to tailed and broad peaks. The effect of silanols is minimised by the addition of a competing agent in the mobile phase, such as the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). In micellar-organic RPLC, the adsorption of an approximately fixed amount of SDS monomers gives rise to a stable modified stationary phase, with properties remarkably different from those of the underlying bonded phase. The chromatographic behaviour (in terms of selectivity, analysis time and peak shape) of eight C18 columns in the analysis of weakly acidic phenols and basic β-blockers was examined with hydro-organic and micellar-organic mobile phases. The behaviour of the columns differed significantly when the cationic basic drugs were eluted with hydro-organic mobile phases. With micellar-organic mobile phases, the adsorption of surfactant, instead of making the columns similar, gave rise to a greater diversity of behaviours (especially in terms of selectivity and analysis time), for both groups of phenols and β-blockers, which should be explained by the residual effect of the underlying bonded stationary phase and the different amount of surfactant covering the packing. Therefore, the implementation of a micellar-organic procedure in RPLC will depend significantly on the selected type of C18 column.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2017
Alain Berthod; M.J. Ruiz-Angel; Samuel Carda-Broch
The molten organic salts with melting point below 100°C, commonly called ionic liquids (ILs) have found numerous uses in separation sciences due to their exceptional properties as non molecular solvents, namely, a negligible vapor pressure, a high thermal stability, and unique solvating properties due to polarity and their ionic character of molten salts. Other properties, such as viscosity, boiling point, water solubility, and electrochemical window, are adjustable playing with which anion is associated with which cation. This review focuses on recent development of the uses of ILs in separation techniques actualizing our 2008 article (same authors, J. Chromatogr. A, 1184 (2008) 6-18) focusing on alkyl methylimidazolium salts. These developments include the use of ILs in nuclear waste reprocessing, highly thermally stable ILs that allowed for the introduction of polar gas chromatography capillary columns able to work at temperature never seen before (passing 300°C), the use of ILs in liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, and the introduction of tailor-made ILs for mass spectrometry detection of trace anions at the few femtogram level. The recently introduced deep eutectic solvents are not exactly ILs, they are related enough so that their properties and uses in countercurrent chromatography are presented.
Separation and Purification Reviews | 2013
M.J. Ruiz-Angel; Samuel Carda-Broch; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque
Micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) was first proposed as an attractive alternative to avoid the use of organic solvents. It was soon apparent that pure micellar solutions yield poor efficiencies. This problem was remediated by the addition of a small amount of an organic solvent. However, the general opinion of the poor peak shape has prevailed as a handicap for MLC, in spite of the fact that the hybrid mode often offers similar or even improved efficiencies (for basic compounds) relative to that attained in the hydro-organic mode. Only the efficiencies for apolar non-ionizable compounds are still clearly inferior. This work describes the type of interactions and polarity changes with organic solvent and surfactant adsorption, and the stationary phase architecture and wetting with micellar mobile phases, compared to hydro-organic mobile phases. The predominant term influencing band broadening in MLC appears to be stationary phase mass transfer. Organic solvents produce a thinner surfactant layer on the column, which permits better solute diffusion. Anionic surfactants suppress the silanol effect for basic compounds due to the protecting coating of the stationary phase by the surfactant, which seems to be more effective than the direct electrostatic interaction of amines with free silanols.
Journal of Chromatography A | 2014
M.J. Ruiz-Angel; M.C. García-Álvarez-Coque; Alain Berthod; Samuel Carda-Broch
Method validation is being applied in the reported analytical methods for decades. Even before this protocol was defined, authors already somehow validated their methods without full awareness. They wished to assure the quality of their work. Validation is an applied approach to verify that a method is suitable and rugged enough to function as a quality control tool in different locations and times. The performance parameters and statistical protocols followed throughout a validation study vary with the source of guidelines. Before single laboratory validation, an analytical method should be fully developed and optimized. The purpose of the validation is to confirm performance parameters that are determined during method development, and it should provide information on how the method will perform under routine use. An unstable method may require re-validation. Further method development and optimization will be needed if validation results do not meet the accepted performance standards. When possible, the validation protocol should also be conducted as a collaborative study by multiple laboratories, on different instruments, reagents, and standards. At this point, it would be interesting to know how people are validating their methods. Are they evaluating all defined validation parameters? Are they indicating the followed guidelines? Is re-validation really currently used? Is validation performed by a single laboratory, or is it a collaborative work by several laboratories? Is it an evolving discipline? In this survey, we will try to answer these questions focused to the field of liquid chromatography.