Ionic Mobile Phase Research Articles

Poly(carboxyethyl acrylate‐co‐ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) precursor monolith with bonded octadecyl ligands for use in reversed‐phase capillary electrochromatography

A carboxy precursor monolithic column, namely poly(carboxy ethyl acrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) was first produced in a 100μm i.d. fused-silica capillary and subsequently surface bonded with n-octadecyl (C18 ) ligands by a post-polymerization functionalization process with octadecylamine in the presence of N,N´-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. The bonding of octadecyl ligands was achieved via an amide linkage between the carboxy functions of the precursor monolith and the amino group of the octadecylamine compound. The resulting C18 monolith exhibited a very low electroosmotic flow (EOF), a fact that required the incorporation of small amounts of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS) in the polymerization solution to produce a precursor monolith with fixed negative charges of sulfonate groups. This may indicate that the conjugation of the carboxy functions with octadecylamine occurred to a large extent so that the amount of residual carboxy functions was sparsely dispersed and not enough to produce a desirable EOF. The EOF velocity of the C18 column having fixed negative charges provided by the incorporated AMPS increased with increasing ACN content of the mobile phase signaling an increased binding of mobile phase ions to the polar amide linkages near the monolithic surface, and a decreased viscosity of the mobile phase, both of which would result in increased EOF velocity. The C18 monolithic column constituted a novel nonpolar sorbent for reversed-phase capillary electrochromatography for nonpolar solutes, e.g., alkylbenzenes, alkylphenyl ketones, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and slightly polar compounds including phenol and chlorophenols. The C18 monolithic column exhibited relatively high selectivity toward chlorophenols differing by one chloro substituent.

Control of retention mechanisms on an octadecyl-bonded silica column using ionic liquid-based mobile phase in analysis of cytostatic drugs by liquid chromatography

This study assesses the potential of using ionic liquids (ILs) as mobile phase additives to control the retention mechanism of four cytostatic drugs: doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), epirubicin hydrochloride (EPI), daunorubicin hydrochloride (DAU) and idarubicin hydrochloride (IDA). Chromatographic separations were performed on a C18 analytical column (Discovery C18 150 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) using six IL anions and four methyl-substituted IL cations with different alkyl chain lengths (alone or with the additional methyl group on the aromatic ring), or with an allyl group added as a cationic substituent. Thus, a total of 17 different ILs were assessed. The aqueous formic acid solution and phosphate buffer were used to compare how mobile phase composition affected the behavior of the analyzed cytostatic agents in the presence of ILs. In addition, the impacts of IL concentration, phosphate buffer concentration, and phosphate buffer pH on the final results were also considered. The ability to change analyte retention without negatively impacting peak shape or analytical efficiency was also controlled via the tailing factor and number of theoretical plates. Based on the results, the tested ILs were classified as either effective or ineffective mobile phase additives for separation of anthracyclines and identification by LC-FL technique.

Preparation and chromatographic evaluation of a polymer-based stationary phase for weak anion-exchange/hydrophilic interaction

a weak cationic exchange/hydrophilic interaction mixed-mode stationary phase (Sil-PolyCOOH) for high performance liquid chromatography was prepared by bonding polyethylene maleic anhydride to the surface of amino silica gel via a nucleophilic substitution reaction, followed by hydrolysis of the residual maleic anhydride. The new stationary phase material was characterized by solid-state13C nuclear magnetic resonance analysis and ζ-potential measurements. The chromatographic performance and retention mechanism of this stationary phase were evaluated using nucleosides and nucleic bases as probes. The effects of mobile phase composition, ion strength, and pH on the retention factor were investigated. The results show that the retention mechanism of the stationary phase involves both hydrophilic distribution interaction and multiple forces between the host and guests. The stationary phase also showed good separation performance for saccharides, diquat, and paraquat. These results show that the stationary phase has a good application prospect in the separation of polar compounds.

Dedicated comparisons of diverse polysaccharide- and zwitterionic Cinchona alkaloid-based chiral stationary phases probed with basic and ampholytic indole analogs in liquid and subcritical fluid chromatography mode

Normal phase (NP) high-performance liquid and sub- and supercritical fluid chromatographic (both acronymed as SFC) methods have been developed for the enantiomer separation of three basic and three ampholytic structurally related C-3-substituted indole analogs on seven non-ionic (neutral) polysaccharide-based and two chemically entirely different zwitterionic Cinchona alkaloid- and sulfonic acid-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs). In a systematic fashion the effect of the composition of the mobile phase, the nature of the alcohol and amine additives on the retention characteristics and enantioselectivity of the ionizable analytes were investigated. On all studied polysaccharide-based CSPs the three ampholytes remained unretained in NP-LC mode, while they were nicely retained and resolved in SFC mode. These unexpected results underline a specific property of liquid CO2 as bulk solvent in combination with alcohols as co-solvents and amine additives thus creating an environment around the chiral selector sites which support the retention of ampholytes. The zwitterionic CSPs worked equally well for the resolution of the basic and ampholytic analytes using a polar ionic mobile phase in both LC and SFC modes.Results acquired by studying the effect of temperature were used to calculate the changes in standard enthalpy Δ(ΔH°), entropy Δ(ΔS°), and free energy Δ(ΔG°) applying van't Hoff plots. The values of the thermodynamic parameters depended on the nature of selectors, the structure of analytes and the properties of the mobile phases. On polysaccharide-based CSPs and columns operated in NP-LC mode enthalpically-, whereas in SFC mode both enthalpically- and entropically-driven enantiomer separations were observed.

An orientation sensitive approach in biomolecule interaction quantitative structure–activity relationship modeling and its application in ion-exchange chromatography

Quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) modeling for prediction of biomolecule parameters has become an established technique in chromatographic purification process design. Unfortunately available descriptor sets fail to describe the orientation of biomolecules and the effects of ionic strength in the mobile phase on the interaction with the stationary phase. The literature describes several special descriptors used for chromatographic retention modeling, all of these do not describe the screening of electrostatic potential by the mobile phase in use. In this work we introduce two new approaches of descriptor calculations, namely surface patches and plane projection, which capture an oriented binding to charged surfaces and steric hindrance of the interaction with chromatographic ligands with regard to electrostatic potential screening by mobile phase ions. We present the use of the developed descriptor sets for predictive modeling of Langmuir isotherms for proteins at different pH values between pH 5 and 10 and varying ionic strength in the range of 10–100mM. The resulting model has a high correlation of calculated descriptors and experimental results, with a coefficient of determination of 0.82 and a predictive coefficient of determination of 0.92 for unknown molecular structures and conditions. The agreement of calculated molecular interaction orientations with both, experimental results as well as molecular dynamic simulations from literature is shown. The developed descriptors provide the means for improved QSAR models of chromatographic processes, as they reflect the complex interactions of biomolecules with chromatographic phases.

Determination of trantinterol enantiomers in human plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography - tandem mass spectrometry using vancomycin chiral stationary phase and solid phase extraction and stereoselective pharmacokinetic application.

A sensitive and enantioselective vancomycin chiral stationary phase high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of trantinterol enantiomers in human plasma. Baseline resolution was achieved using the vancomycin chiral stationary phase known as Chirobiotic V with polar ionic mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile-methanol (60:40, v/v) containing 0.01% ammonia and 0.02% acetic acid at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. Waters Oasis HLB C18 solid phase extraction cartridges were used in the sample preparation of trantinterol samples from plasma. The detection was performed on a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer by multiple reaction monitoring mode via electrospray ionization. The calibration curve was linear in a concentration range from 0.0606 to 30.3 ng/mL in plasma, with the lower limit of quantification of 0.0606 ng/mL. The intra- and interday precision (relative standard deviation) values were within 9.7% and the accuracy (relative error) was from -6.6 to 7.2% at all quality control levels. The method was successfully applied to a study of stereoselective pharmacokinetics in human.

High-performance liquid chromatographic enantioseparation of cationic 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline analogs on Cinchona alkaloid-based zwitterionic chiral stationary phases.

The stereoisomers of 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline analogs were resolved for the first time by applying a polar ionic mobile phase on a quinine or a quinidine moiety fused with a chiral sulfonic acid-type chiral selector immobilized on silica [Chiralpak ZWIX(+)™ and Chiralpak ZWIX(-)™]. The effects of the nature and concentrations of the mobile phase components and additives and temperature on the retention and enantioseparation on the investigated chiral columns were studied. Experiments were performed in the temperature range 10-50 °C. Thermodynamic parameters were calculated from plots of ln α versus 1/T. The separations were generally enthalpy-controlled, but entropy-controlled separation was also observed below 30 °C. The enantiomer elution order was determined in some cases and was observed to be opposite on the ZWIX(+)™ and ZWIX(-)™ columns. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the enantiorecognition mechanism of chiral bases with chiral zwitterionic selectors.

Enantioselective Quantification of Atenolol in Mouse Plasma by High Performance Liquid Chromatography Using a Chiral Stationary Phase: Application to a Pharmacokinetic Study

Enantiomeric resolution of atenolol was achieved on the HPLC vancomycin macrocyclic antibiotic chiral stationary phase Chirobiotic V. The polar ionic mobile phase consisted of methanol-glacial acetic acidtriethylamine (100 + 0.025 + 0.75, v/v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. Fluorescence detection at 2751305 nm for excitation and emission, respectively, was used. Plasma samples were purified using SPE on Oasis HLB cartridges. The calibration curves in plasma were linear over the range of 5-400 ng/mL (r = 0.999) for each enantiomer with an LOD of 1.0 ng/mL. The proposed method was validated in compliance with International Conference of Harmonization guidelines in terms of linearity, accuracy, precision, LOD, LOQ, and selectivity. The overall recoveries for S-(-)- and R-(+)-atenolol enantiomers from plasma were 95.0-99.5%; RSD ranged from 2.5 to 3.3%. The developed method was applied for the trace analysis of atenolol enantiomers in plasma and for the pharmacokinetic investigation of atenolol enantiomers in mouse plasma.

Monitoring of Phosphorus Oxide Ion for Analytical Speciation of Phosphite and Phosphate in Transgenic Plants by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Large amounts of phosphate fertilizers utilized in agriculture and their relatively poor efficiency are of high ecological and economic concern. Therefore, transgenic plants capable of metabolizing phosphite are being engineered. In support of this biotechnological task, analytical speciation of phosphorus in biological tissues is required. In this study, plant extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry at m/z of elemental phosphorus and phosphorus oxide ions. Using polymeric-based anion exchange column and millimolar concentration of nitric acid in potassium phthalate mobile phase (pH 2.5), phosphite and phosphate ions were baseline resolved with retention times 6.95 ± 0.03 and 7.90 ± 0.03 min and with a total chromatographic run time 10 min. The detection limits were 1.58 and 1.74 μg P L(-1) at m/z 47, as compared to 2.18 and 2.04 μg P L(-1) at m/z 31, respectively. The results obtained in real world samples for the two detection modes were in good agreement, yet signal acquisition at m/z 47 enabled better precision without collision/reaction cell (RSD below 2%) as compared to RSD around 4% obtained at m/z 31 using He-pressurized cell (3.5 mL min(-1)).

Optimized chromatographic conditions for separation of halogenated acetic acids by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

Emerging halogenated acetic acids (HAAs), especially mixed halogenated acids such as chlorobromo-, chloroiodo- and bromoiodo-acetic acids, are unregulated disinfection by-products in drinking water. Because these compounds are hydrophilic and strongly acidic, they are difficult to detect at trace levels using approved analytical methods. In the present study, 13 HAAs were effectively separated on three ultra-performance liquid chromatography columns. The effects of changing in the aqueous mobile phase, acidic solutions and cationic volatile ion pair reagents were investigated. The samples were pretreated by filtration, and extraction, while derivatization and concentration procedures were not required. The limits of quantitation for regulated HAAs were between 0.5μg/L and 1.7μg/L and for unregulated HAAs were 1.2 and 5.8μg/L, especially for the iodinated acetic acids were 1.5 and 2.1μg/L. The method was applied to two finished water samples collected in China (Shanghai and Xuzhou) from water treatment plants that use chlorine for disinfection. Multiple unregulated HAAs were found in the two samples, but iodoacids were only detected in the water sample from Shanghai, which could be attributed to the characteristics of the source water. The presence of unregulated HAAs, especially mixed bromo- and iodoacetic acids, in the finished water samples could affect human health, and this warrants further investigation.

Behavior and Retention Models of Melamine and Its Hydrolysis Products

The retention behavior of melamine (MEL), ammeline (AMN), ammelide, and cyanuric acid on various hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) stationary phases was studied. Using fully optimized electrospray conditions and ammonium formate buffer pH 4/acetonitrile (20:80 v/v) as a mobile phase, precursor and product ions for each compound were identified. For the LC separation study, the effect of the following parameters was investigated: the type of buffer, the effect of the pH of ammonium formate buffer, the dilution percentage of the standard solutions in the vial, the stability of the standard solutions, and the column equilibration time. The retention and separation of melamine and its hydrolysis products on several HILIC columns was also investigated and retention models were proposed. Retention mechanisms were discussed for all the compounds. When the percentage of acetonitrile in the mobile phase was increased, the retention times of ammelide, ammeline and melamine were shifted to higher values, while the retention time of cyanuric acid did not change significantly. The separation of compounds with isobaric transitions (MEL, AMN) was achieved on four HILIC columns, namely TSKgel Amide-80, Luna HILIC, XBridge HILIC, and ZIC-HILIC (at either 10/90 or 15/85 ammonium formate buffer pH 4/ACN).

Supercritical fluid chromatographic resolution of water soluble isomeric carboxyl/amine terminated peptides facilitated via mobile phase water and ion pair formation

Both analytical scale and preparative scale packed column supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) have found widespread applicability for chiral separations of multiple polar pharmaceutical candidates. However, SFC is rapidly becoming an achiral technique. More specifically, ion pair SFC is finding greater utility for separation of ionic analytes such as amine salts and organic sulfonates. The key to this success is, in part, the incorporation of additives such as trifluoroacetic acid and ammonium acetate into the mobile phase in association with a wide variety of both bonded silica stationary phases and high purity bare silica. Ion pairing SFC coupled with evaporative light scattering detection and mass spectrometric detection is presented here for the separation of water soluble, uncapped, isomeric peptide pairs that differ in amino acid arrangement. The separation is best achieved on either diol-bonded silica or bare silica with 1–5% (w/w) water as a significant ingredient in the mobile phase. Nitrogenous stationary phases such as 2-ethylpyridine, which had been very successful for the separation of capped peptides failed to yield the desired separation regardless of the mobile phase composition. A HILIC type retention mechanism is postulated for the separation of both isomeric uncapped peptide pairs.

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC)—a powerful separation technique

Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) provides an alternative approach to effectively separate small polar compounds on polar stationary phases. The purpose of this work was to review the options for the characterization of HILIC stationary phases and their applications for separations of polar compounds in complex matrices. The characteristics of the hydrophilic stationary phase may affect and in some cases limit the choices of mobile phase composition, ion strength or buffer pH value available, since mechanisms other than hydrophilic partitioning could potentially occur. Enhancing our understanding of retention behavior in HILIC increases the scope of possible applications of liquid chromatography. One interesting option may also be to use HILIC in orthogonal and/or two-dimensional separations. Bioapplications of HILIC systems are also presented. Figure

Mixed ligand monolithic columns for reversed‐phase capillary electrochromatography via hydrophobic and π interactions

Novel mixed ligand monoliths (MLM) for capillary electrochromatography (CEC) of a wide range of solutes differing in both polarity and size were introduced. The MLM capillary columns were based on the different compositions of octadecyl acrylate (ODA) and 2-naphthyl methacrylate (NAPM) monomers in the presence of trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) crosslinker and a ternary porogenic solvent made up of cyclohexanol, ethylene glycol, and water. As expected, the magnitude of the electroosmotic flow (EOF) changed with the composition of the MLM. As the percent of the monomer ODA in the polymerization mixture was increased, the EOF increased to a maximum at 50-mol% ODA and then leveled off at 75-mol% and 100-mol% ODA, an indication that the ODA ligand in general exhibited a higher binding for the mobile-phase ions than the NAPM ligand. This is due to the fact that the ODA is an acrylate-based monomer, whereas the NAPM is a methacrylate-based monomer. While ODA provided solely nonpolar interactions, NAPM exhibited both nonpolar and π interactions with certain solutes. It was found out that columns with a given composition of both ligands yielded a unique selectivity for a given set of solutes that was not matched by columns made by either ODA or NAPM alone. Several test mixtures were used in the evaluation of the MLM columns including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkyl phenyl ketones, nitroalkanes, alkylbenzenes, toluene derivatives, peptides, and proteins. Peptide mapping of the tryptic digest of the standard lysozyme protein was also studied.

Chromatographic evaluation of reversed-phase/anion-exchange/cation-exchange trimodal stationary phases prepared by electrostatically driven self-assembly process

This work describes chromatographic properties of reversed-phase/cation-exchange/anion-exchange trimodal stationary phases. These stationary phases were based on high-purity porous spherical silica particles coated with nano-polymer beads using an electrostatically driven self-assembly process. The inner-pore area of the material was modified covalently with an organic layer that provided both reversed-phase and anion-exchange properties while the outer surface was coated with nano-sized polymer beads with strong cation-exchange characteristics. This design ensured spatial separation of the anion-exchange and the cation-exchange regions, and allowed reversed-phase, anion-exchange and cation-exchange retention mechanisms to function simultaneously. Chromatographic evaluation of ions and small molecules suggested that retention of ionic analytes was influenced by the ionic strength, pH, and mobile phase organic solvent content, and governed by both ion-exchange and hydrophobic interactions. Meanwhile, neutral analytes were retained by hydrophobic interaction and was mainly affected by mobile phase organic solvent content. Depending on the specific application, selectivity could be optimized by adjusting the anion-exchange/cation-exchange capacity ratio (selectivity), which was achieved experimentally by using porous silica particles with different surface areas.

Stereoselective HPLC analysis of tertatolol in rat plasma using macrocyclic antibiotic chiral stationary phase

Enantiomeric resolution of teratolol was achieved on a vancomycin macrocyclic antibiotic chiral stationary phase known as Chirobiotic V with UV detection set at 220 nm. The polar ionic mobile phase (PIM) consisted of methanol-glacial acetic acid-triethylamine (100:0.01:0.015, v/v/v) has been used at a flow rate of 0.8 ml min(-1) . The calibration curves in plasma were linear over the range of 5-500 ng ml(-1) for each enantiomer with detection limit of 2 ng ml(-1) . The proposed method was validated in compliance with the international conference on harmonization (ICH) guidelines. The developed method applied for the trace analyses of tertatolol enantiomers in plasma and for the pharmacokinetic study of tertatolol enantiomers in rat plasma. The assay proved to be suitable for therapeutic drug monitoring and chiral quality control for tertatolol formulations by HPLC.

Naphthyl methacrylate‐phenylene diacrylate‐based monolithic column for reversed‐phase capillary electrochromatography via hydrophobic and π interactions

A neutral naphthyl methacrylate-phenylene diacrylate-based monolith (NPM) was introduced for RP-CEC of various neutral and charged solute probes via hydrophobic and π interactions. The NPM column was prepared by the in situ polymerization of naphthyl methacrylate as the functional monomer and 1,4-phenylene diacrylate (PDA) as the crosslinker in a ternary porogenic solvent containing cyclohexanol, dodecanol and water. The NPM column exhibited cathodal EOF despite the fact that it was devoid of any fixed charges. NPM exhibited stronger EOF than its counterpart naphthyl methacrylate monolith (NMM) made from the in situ polymerization of naphthyl methacrylate and trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM). As for NMM, it is believed that the EOF arises from the adsorption of mobile phase ions onto the monolith surface. The higher EOF exhibited by NPM may be attributed to the acrylate nature of PDA as compared to the methacrylate nature of TRIM, and therefore PDA has a higher binding capacity for mobile phase ions due to its higher polarity than TRIM. The adsorption of mobile phase ions together with the additional π interactions offered by the aromatic rings of the NPM matrix modulated solute retention and separation selectivity. The applications of NPM were demonstrated by the separation of a wide range of small and large solutes including peptides, tryptic peptide maps and proteins.

Enantioseparation of vesamicol and novel vesamicol analogs by high-performance liquid chromatography on different chiral stationary phases

High-performance liquid chromatography enantioseparation of vesamicol and six novel azaspirovesamicols (amino alcohols) was accomplished on different chiral stationary phases (CSPs) by using an optical rotation based chiral detector for identification of the resolved enantiomers. The Pirkle-type column Reprosil Chiral-NR was found to be most suitable for chiral resolution in normal phase (NP) mode; all compounds could be enantioseparated successfully. Also the cellulose-based column Reprosil Chiral-OM showed appropriate separation properties by using NP conditions. The amylose-type column Reprosil Chiral-AM-RP was most suitable for enantioseparation in reversed phase (RP) mode; five out of seven compounds were resolved. This CSP showed a considerably higher capability for chiral recognition of vesamicol derivatives in RP mode than the corresponding cellulose-based column Reprosil Chiral-OM-RP. Enantioseparation with the teicoplanin aglycone-based column Reprosil Chiral-AA was successful under polar ionic mobile phase conditions.

Naphthyl methacrylate‐based monolithic column for RP‐CEC via hydrophobic and π interactions

A neutral naphthyl methacrylate-based monolith (NMM) was introduced for RP-CEC of various aromatic compounds via hydrophobic and pi interactions. It was characterized over a wide range of elution conditions to gain insight into its RP retention mechanism toward the various solute probes under investigation. First, the NMM column exhibited cathodal EOF at various mobile phase compositions and pH suggesting that although the NMM column is void of fixed charges, it acquires a negative zeta potential. It is believed that the negative zeta potential is imparted by the adsorption of mobile phase ions to the NMM surface. The NMM column exhibited pi-pi interactions in addition to hydrophobic interactions due to the aromatic and nonpolar nature of its naphthyl ligands. In all cases, the retention of the various aromatic test solutes including PAHs, benzene derivatives, toluene derivatives, anilines and toluidine, tolunitrile and nitrotoluene positional isomers on the NMM column were compared to their retention on an octadecyl acrylate-based monolithic column. Not only were the values of the retention factors of the various solutes on the NMM column higher than those obtained on the octadecyl acrylate-based monolithic column under otherwise the same CEC conditions, but the elution orders were also different on both columns with a superior and unique selectivity exhibited by the NMM column.

THE RETENTION BEHAVIOR OF LORATADINE AND ITS RELATED COMPOUNDS IN ION PAIR REVERSED PHASE HPLC

Organic amines are important pharmaceutical molecules and appropriate reversed phase HPLC methods for quality control are desirable for them. The development of IP-RPLC methods is challenging for complex profiles of organic amines. Mobile phase pH and ion pair reagent concentration are two important factors affecting the retention behavior of organic amines in IP-RPLC. Loratadine and its eight related compounds were used as the model compounds for studying their retention behavior and the elution profile using a gradient IP-RPLC condition. The parameters examined included the mobile phase pH and the concentration of an ion pairing reagent, SDS. The chromatographic separation and retention factor (k) of each analyte were monitored at different SDS concentrations (0 to 20 mM) and different pH values (6.2 and 3.0). Due to the basicity of the nine compounds in the study, each compound responded differently to the varying ion pairing reagent (SDS) mobile phase concentrations at different pH values. The ionized analytes had increasing retention factors with increasing SDS concentration, while the non-ionized analytes had nearly constant retention factors as a function of the SDS concentration. For the nine organic amines studied, optimal overall separation and resolution were achieved at 3 mM SDS under pH of 6.2 and at 1 mM under pH 3.0, respectively.