Quantitative structure-retention relationship for chromatographic behaviour of anthraquinone derivatives through considering organic modifier features in micellar liquid chromatography

Abstract

A simple and informative quantitative structure-retention relationship (QSRR) model has been introduced for prediction of retention times in some anthraquinone derivatives using reversed-phase micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) technique. In the developed multiple linear regression model, the structural descriptors of analytes as well as the empirical parameters of organic modifiers in the applied MLC systems have been considered. Retention times of 77 chromatographic samples (16 anthraquinones were evaluated by using 6 different organic modifiers) were experimentally determined and utilized as the independent variables of the QSRR model. Five small-chain alcohols (methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, and pentanol) as well as acetonitrile were used as the eluent modifiers. A five-parametric model was attained for the logarithm of the retention time values which covered about 96 and 95% variance of the chromatographic data in training and cross-validation, respectively. The presence of an excellent correlation coefficient for external validation test (= 0.94) and a well-applicable domain proved the prediction ability of the constructed model. Both validity and reliability of the formulated model were examined through its application on diverse random-selected training and test sets. Moreover, quantum chemical calculations were performed in the framework of density functional theory to simulate the interactions between AQs and modifiers and gain mechanistic details about the retention behavior in the MLC system.