Polar-embedded Stationary Phases Research Articles

Phosphodiester Stationary Phases as Universal Chromatographic Materials for Separation in RP LC, HILIC, and Pure Aqueous Mobile Phase.

Modern analytical chemistry techniques meet the need for greater attention to ecological and economic aspects. It is becoming necessary to seek solutions to reduce harmful waste production, especially in large quantities. High-performance liquid chromatography is a technique widely used in many industries, including mainly pharmaceuticals, and requires an approach to reduce the significant amount of organic solvent waste. One of the green chemistry solutions is using environmentally benign substitutes, such as pure water, supercritical dioxide, and ethanol. Our work focuses on the preparation and application of new stationary phases with embedded hydrophilic groups for separations using pure water in liquid chromatography. Polar-embedded stationary phases are obtained by attaching a phosphodiester group and 4 different hydrophobic molecules. The studies consisted of hydrophobicity measurements, concentration dependence of retention of the organic additive to the mobile phase, and chromatographic separations of polar and non-polar substance mixtures in RP-LC and HILIC systems. Three mixtures were studied: purine alkaloids, benzene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nucleosides. The stationary phases interact differently with the analytes depending on the attached hydrophobic group. It is possible to use pure water to separate each mixture under study. It is also significant that it has been possible to separate a mixture of completely non-polar compounds using pure water for the first time. The research being carried out is crucial in synthesizing new polar-embedded stationary phases, providing work versatility and high environmental performance.

A carbonylative coupling approach to alkyl stationary phases with variable embedded carbamate groups for high-performance liquid chromatography

A highly efficient carbonylative coupling method for the preparation of alkyl stationary phases with variable numbers of carbamate groups was established. The effectiveness of such method was verified through elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of three as-synthesized stationary phases bearing different alkyl chains and different numbers of carbamate groups (octadecyl/one carbamate group, C18C; docosyl/three carbamate groups, C22C3; triacontyl/two carbamate groups, C30C2). The comparative evaluation of these stationary phases using a great variety of analytes, including three sets of isomers of alkylbenzenes, two sets of standard mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (SRM 1647e and 869b), nine polychlorinated biphenyls, fiveteen N-substituted ureas, ten sulfonylureas, five xanthines and some other phytonutrients, revealed their remarkable applicability in reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Notably, the intercalated carbamate groups rendered the resultant stationary phases compatible with 100% aqueous mobile phase. The suppression of silanol activity was positively related to the number of polar groups embedded in the bonded selector, and the smallest peak tailing factor (1.14) for amitriptyline was obtained by C22C3. The molecular shape-related selectivity was found to be more closely related to the length of the selector's aliphatic chain, as supported by the lowest αTBN/BaP value (0.31) by C30C2. These carbamate-embedded alkyl stationary phases constituted another class of polar-embedded stationary phases possessing a single type of functional ligand.

Congener-specific determination of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls by polar-embedded reversed-phase liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

This paper reports the development of an LC-ESI-MS2 method for the sensitive determination of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) in human serum samples. Congener-specific separation was achieved by using a polar-embedded stationary phase, previously optimized for the working group, which provided better separation of isobaric compounds than the common octadecylsilane phases. MS fragmentation patterns and energies showed differences among OH-PCB congeners, mainly depending on the position of OH-group and the number of chlorine atoms in the molecule, although the most intense transitions were always those corresponding to the neutral loss of an HCl group from the quasi-molecular ion cluster. The method allowed the determination of OH-PCBs with good linearity (dynamic linear range of four orders of magnitude with R2 higher than 0.995) and precision (relative standard deviations of absolute areas lower than 10%), and with better sensitivity than other similar methods previously described in the literature. Matrix effect has been evaluated and reduced to less than 10% by the addition of isotopically labeled standards and a 10-fold dilution of the final sample extract. The low iLODs provided by the developed method (from 1.2 to 5.4 fg µL-1 for all the OH-PCBs studied, except 4'-OHCB108, whose iLOD was 61 fg µL-1) allows dilution without losses of detected peaks. Finally, the applicability of the method has been demonstrated by analyzing human serum samples belonging to an interlaboratory exercise.

Design and evaluation of polar-embedded stationary phases containing triacontyl group for liquid chromatography

The present work described two triacontyl-bonded silica adsorbents containing different polar embedded groups (i.e. amide- and carbamate-type) for high performance liquid chromatography, which were prepared by covalent surface modification of silica gel with respective pre-synthesized polar-embedded triacontyl (C30) silane. The acylimidazole-mediated method was used for the first time for the synthesis of amide-type alkyl silane, while the carbamate-type silane was obtained via an improved solvent-free procedure. A conventional C30 stationary phase was also developed on the same silica substrate in the similar manner, which was used as a reference column for comparison of the unique mechanisms facilitated and/or furnished by the polar groups. The successful immobilization of the designed C30 species was confirmed by infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. In further comparison with an amide-embedded octadecyl (C18) two other conventional C18 stationary phases of different surface chemistry, detailed chromatographic characterization of the C30 series stationary phases was performed in terms of surface density, hydrophobicity, aromatic selectivity, shape selectivity and water tolerance using a diversified range of analytes, including homologous alkylbenzenes, isomeric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carotenes, congeners of polychlorobiphenyls, aromatic amines, phenolic compounds, estrogens and nucleosides. A high resemblance between the chromatographic behaviors of the two polar-modified C30 stationary phases was observed, meanwhile they demonstrated noticeable differences from non-polar C30 stationary phase. The polar-embedded C30 phases showed satisfactory performance towards the solutes of interest in the studied conditions. The beneficial synergy of the polar groups and the triacontyl chains enabled these polar-enhanced C30 stationary phases to address challenging separation tasks with high selectivity.

An alternative approach for preparation of amide-embedded stationary phase for reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Polar-embedded stationary phases are superior to conventional alkyl stationary phases in terms of water-wettability, silanol activity and polar selectivity. A novel method was proposed for efficient preparation of amide-embedded stationary phases bearing extended aliphatic chain and large aromatic ring. The present approach, which simply required isocyanate and desired carboxylic acid, rather than the normal combination of amine/acyl chloride/proton scavenger, produced aromatic pyrenyl amide-embedded (PYE-Amide) and aliphatic docosanyl amide-embedded (C22-Amide) stationary phases. The as-synthesized packing materials were characterized and evaluated in comparison with conventional octadecyl stationary phases in terms of bonding density, aromatic and hydrophobic natures, charge-transfer capability, and selectivity towards isomers of various unsaturated compounds. A high affinity of the unsaturated ligand for the unsaturated solutes, especially the electron-deficient ones, was observed. The PYE-Amide stationary phase exhibited unique aromaticity-dependent shape selectivity, which was beneficial to the resolution of certain geometric isomers of polycyclic arenes. The applicability of such stationary phases was demonstrated by effective separations of estrogens and sulfonamide drugs.

High performance liquid chromatography as a molecular probe in quantitative structure-retention relationships studies of selected lipid classes on polar-embedded stationary phases

Studies on the retention mechanism of lipid classes (phospholipids, sphingomyelin) were performed using three polar-embedded stationary phases for which diol, phosphate, amino, and amide moieties were incorporated into the alkyl chains of the stationary phases. Their structural descriptors were determined using the quantum-mechanical method. The retention behavior of the analytes was investigated as a function of different binary hydro-organic mobile phases containing (90%/10% acetonitrile (or methanol)/0.1% formic acid). It was found that the elution order on the tested stationary phases was governed chiefly by the hydrophilicity of the analyte and indicated the existence of a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography retention mechanism. Quantitative structure-retention relationships studies were performed to further elucidate the retention mechanism. These studies showed that the dominant analyte descriptor influencing retention on the alkyl-amine stationary phase was the logarithm of the octanol-water partition coefficient. For the phospho-diol and alkyl-amide stationary phases, the dominant analyte descriptor influencing retention was the molar volume and solvent accessible area of the analyte, respectively.

Synthesis of Bromoundecyl Resorc[4]arenes and Applications of the Cone Stereoisomer as Selector for Liquid Chromatography.

As an extension of our studies on the multifaceted properties of C-alkylated resorc[4]arenes, we planned to immobilize on a solid support resorc[4]arenes with C11-long side chains in the lower rim. To this purpose, we synthesized two conformationally diverse resorc[4]arenes containing a bromoundecyl moiety in the four axial pendants. The cone stereoisomer 6a (30% yield) was selected for the reaction with an aminopropylated silica gel (APSG) obtained from spherical Kromasil Si 100, 5 μm particles, to give the corresponding immobilized SP-C11-resorc[4]arene system. The resulting polar-embedded stationary phase was fully characterized and investigated in the HPLC discrimination of the E/ Z stereoisomers of naturally occurring and semisynthetic combretastatins, a family of ( Z)-stilbene anticancer drugs. The chair stereoisomer 6b (20% yield), when submitted to X-ray diffraction analysis, showed a noteworthy self-assembly in the crystal lattice, with intercalated hydrophobic and polar layers as a result of intermolecular Br···O halogen bond interactions, according to a unique stacking motif. The potential and versatility of the SP-C11-resorc[4]arene stationary phase were shown as well in the separation of highly polar natural products (namely, flavonoids), under reversed-phase (RP) conditions, and of fullerenes C60 and C70, by using apolar solvents as mobile phases.

Anthracenyl polar embedded stationary phases with enhanced aromatic selectivity. Part II: A density functional theory study

New polar embedded aromatic stationary phases (mono- and trifunctional versions) that contain an amide-embedded group coupled with a tricyclic aromatic moiety were developed for chromatographic applications and described in the first paper of this series. These phases offered better separation performance for PAHs than for alkylbenzene homologues, and an enhanced ability to differentiate aromatic planarity to aromatic tridimensional conformation, especially for the trifunctional version and when using methanol instead of acetonitrile. In this second paper, a density functional theory study of the retention process is reported. In particular, it was shown that the selection of the suitable computational protocol allowed for describing rigorously the interactions that could take place, the solvent effects, and the structural changes for the monofunctional and the trifunctional versions. For the first time, the experimental data coupled with these DFT results provided a better understanding of the interaction mechanisms and highlighted the importance of the multimodal character of the designed stationary phases: alkyl spacers for interactions with hydrophobic solutes, amide embedded groups for dipole-dipole and hydrogen-bond interactions, and aromatic terminal groups for π-π interactions.

New anthracenyl polar embedded stationary phases with enhanced aromatic selectivity, a combined experimental and theoretical study: Part 1-experimental study

New polar embedded aromatic stationary phases of different functionalities (mono- and trifunctional) and on different silica supports (Fully Porous Particle (FPP) and Superficially Porous Particle (SPP)) were synthesized to determine the impact of the functionality on the retention process and the selectivity towards aromatic compounds. A full experimental characterization was performed using a combination of techniques (elemental analysis, thermogravimetric measurements, infrared spectroscopy and solid-state NMR) to differentiate unambiguously the mono- and trifunctional Stationary Phases (SP). Commercially available columns with either an aromatic group or a polar embedded group were compared to the new stationary phases. The latter presented enhanced affinity for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) structures compared to alkylbenzenes, especially when using methanol instead of acetonitrile as the organic modifier.

Synthesis and characterization of ester-bonded stationary phases for liquid chromatography

The new type of stationary bonded phases for liquid chromatography with immobilized artificial membrane properties was synthesized. Based on the modification of diol-bonded silica gel the cholesterol-ester and alkyl-ester stationary phases were obtained. The structures of synthesized material were confirmed by different physico-chemical techniques such as elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 13C CP/MAS NMR and chromatography. Synthesized stationary phases were characterized and visualized by computer modeling that indicates the regions of potential hydrophobic and polar interactions. Synthesized material possess residual hydroxyl groups that reduce the hydrophobicity of the material and causes better stability at high water concentration. Due to surface properties these materials are became polar embedded stationary phases.

Development and Optimisation of an HPLC-DAD-ESI-Q-ToF Method for the Determination of Phenolic Acids and Derivatives

A method for the HPLC-MS/MS analysis of phenols, including phenolic acids and naphtoquinones, using an amide-embedded phase column was developed and compared to the literature methods based on classical C18 stationary phase columns. RP-Amide is a recently developed polar embedded stationary phase, whose wetting properties mean that up to 100% water can be used as an eluent. The increased retention and selectivity for polar compounds and the possibility of working in 100% water conditions make this column particularly interesting for the HPLC analysis of phenolic acids and derivatives. In this study, the chromatographic separation was optimised on an HPLC-DAD, and was used to separate 13 standard phenolic acids and derivatives. The method was validated on an HPLC-ESI-Q-ToF. The acquisition was performed in negative polarity and MS/MS target mode. Ionisation conditions and acquisition parameters for the Q-ToF detector were investigated by working on collision energies and fragmentor potentials. The performance of the method was fully evaluated on standards. Moreover, several raw materials containing phenols were analysed: walnut, gall, wine, malbec grape, French oak, red henna and propolis. Our method allowed us to characterize the phenolic composition in a wide range of matrices and to highlight possible matrix effects.

Performance of zwitterionic hydrophilic interaction LC for the determination of iodinated X‐ray contrast agents

This study compares the separation performance of a group of iodinated X-ray contrast media on four different columns. The first three were two stationary phases (SPs) modified with C18 and a polar-embedded SP (polar amide group bonded to an alkyl chain), all of which worked under RP-LC mode. The fourth was a zwitterionic sulphoalkylbetaine SP, working under the hydrophilic interaction LC (HILIC) mode. After the optimisation of the different parameters, the zwitterionic column displayed the best separation, which also overcomes the problems encountered when these analytes were separated under RP-LC. Moreover, when HILIC is coupled to MS/MS, sensitivity is enhanced. However, when sewage samples were analysed by SPE followed by the optimal HILIC-MS/MS, the sensitivity of the method was affected due to the high matrix effect, which had to be solved by dilution of the extract. Finally, the method was preliminarily validated with sewage and the figures of merit were comparable to those of the SPE-RP-LC-MS/MS.

Characterization and optimization by experimental design of a liquid chromatographic method for the separation of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls on a polar-embedded stationary phase

Traditionally, the determination of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (OH-PCBs) has been carried out by gas chromatography (GC). However, the gas chromatographic behavior and sensitivity of this type of hydroxylated compounds are not always satisfactory, hence a prior derivatization of the OH-PCBs must be performed. Therefore, the development of liquid chromatographic methods should prove to be a very interesting task aimed at dealing with the instrumental determination of OH-PCBs. Taking into account that octadecylsilane stationary phases are not the most adequate for the separation of isobaric compounds, an amide-type column has been tested. For the development of the method, the Response Surface Methodology was used, based on a Box–Wilson Central Composite experimental design. The initial content of methanol in the mobile phase, the gradient time, and the concentration and the pH value of the buffer were chosen as relevant experimental parameters. A global optimum was obtained by selecting the elution time, the sensitivity and the overall resolution as responses to optimize. The developed method for liquid chromatography presented a very good resolution and sensitivity, and a reasonably short analysis time. In addition, a retention study was conducted in order to survey the different interactions that take place in the separation process, showing that hydrogen bonding is the main interaction between OH-PCBs and the amide-type stationary phase. However, a substantial contribution of dispersion forces was present in methanol contents in the mobile phase below 65%. Besides, the pH value of the mobile phase was found to be the most important parameter to control the hydrogen bond forces and therefore, to regulate the OH-PCBs separation.

Preparation of a stationary phase with s-triazine ring embedded group for reversed phase high-performance LC

This paper describes the synthesis and chromatographic evaluation of a new polar-embedded stationary phase, which utilized 2,4,6-trichloro-1,3,5-triazine as the spacer. The resulting materials were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and solid-state (13)C NMR. Empirical test mixtures were utilized to evaluate the column, and showed that it had good performance for basic compounds and high selectivity for polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Moreover, the novel stationary phase has unique property, especially in the separation of "homologous alkaloids" from natural products.

Retention and selectivity properties of carbamate pesticides on novel polar-embedded stationary phases

This study describes the use of stationary phases with polar functionality suitable for the chemical analysis of carbamates pesticides and comparing with conventional alkyl C8 and C18 phases. The emphasis of this study was to compare the selectivity and retention of the pesticides on different stationary phases, bonded onto 1.7 microm partially porous silica particles under isocratic separation condition. Four stationary phases including: phenylaminopropyl (PAP) phase, bidentate propylurea-C18 (BPUC(18)), C8 and C18, were successfully bonded on the partially porous silica spheres as evidenced by (29)Si and (13)C solid-state NMR analysis. The phenylaminopropyl phase exhibited smaller retentivity and enhanced selectivity compared to the alkyl C8 phase; the analysis time to run separation of the six carbamate pesticides (i.e., methomyl, propoxur, carbofuran, carbaryl, isoprocarb, and promecarb) on the PAP phase was threefold faster than alkyl C8 phase. In a similar manner, the BPUC(18) phase shows similar selectivity to that of the PAP phase, but with longer retentivity; although the BPUC(18) phase is characterized with a lesser degree of retentivity for the carbamate pesticides than the conventional alkyl C18 phase. We propose that pi-pi and weak polar interactions between the carbamate pesticides and the PAP phase dominates the separation mechanism and providing a superior selectivity; faster separation time was also achieved as a result of smaller retentivity. Whereas the C8 and C18 bonded phases exhibits only hydrophobic interactions with the pesticides, leading to larger retentivity. The BPUC(18) phase is shown to interact via polar-polar interactions in addition to hydrophobic interactions with the pesticides, providing similar selectivity with the PAP phase but with larger retentivity.

Use of a polar-embedded stationary phase for the separation of tocopherols by CEC

A polar-embedded stationary phase (ULTIMA C18) has been investigated for the separation of alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocopherols by CEC in comparison with commercially available C(18) and C(30) n-alkyl RPs. The behavior of this stationary phase was tested for different mobile phases based on methanol, ACN, or mixtures thereof and different separation parameters such as retention factors and resolution were evaluated. The main feature of this stationary phase is the improved selectivity for the separation of beta- and gamma-tocopherols (positional isomers) when compared with the pure n-alkyl C(18) material, which was unable to resolve these compounds. Additionally, it is possible to observe a reversal in the elution order of the beta- and gamma-tocopherol isomers with respect to that obtained on the C(30) column. The resulting data indicate that the enhanced selectivity obtained with the polar-embedded stationary phase, with respect to the conventional C(18) material, is due to the participation of both hydrophobic and polar interactions: these latter are of the hydrogen bridge type with the amide group of the polar-embedded stationary phase, which increases the retention of the tocopherols and facilitates the discrimination between the beta- and gamma-isomers. Adequate separation of the four tocopherols was obtained by CEC using the polar-embedded stationary phase and 95:5 v/v methanol/water (5 mM Tris, final concentration) as the mobile phase.

New polar-embedded stationary phase for surfactant analysis

The separation and identification of surfactants is a challenge due to the diversity of surfactants, the complex composition of surfactant raw materials, and the complexity of the sample matrices. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is the preferred analytical technique, because it allows the characterization of surfactant raw materials according to their composition and the quantitation of individual surfactants in complex mixtures. Although many HPLC columns are available for surfactant analysis, none of these columns provide optimal selectivity for the simultaneous analysis of anionic, non-ionic, and cationic surfactants using the same mobile phase system. In this paper, we describe a new polar-embedded stationary phase for the simultaneous analysis of anionic, non-ionic, and cationic surfactants with a simple and volatile mobile phase system containing ammonium acetate buffer and acetonitrile, utilizing evaporative light-scattering detection (ELSD). Mobile phase ionic strength and pH are important for optimizing chromatographic conditions. The column offers ideal selectivity for different types of surfactants, excellent peak shapes, especially for cationic surfactants, improved resolution for oligomers in ethoxylated surfactants, and compatibility with highly aqueous mobile phases. Thus, it can be used not only for quality assurance of individual surfactants, but also for the analysis of a variety of surfactant-containing formulations.

Development of a polar-embedded stationary phase with unique properties

This paper describes a new polar-embedded stationary phase that contains an internal sulfonamide functional group coupled with an ether linkage. The synthesis involves functionalization of spherical silica particles with ligands prepared in a multi-step synthesis. The resulting material contains 16.5% carbon, corresponding to a ligand coverage of 2.4 μmol/m 2. Chromatographic evaluations indicates that the new stationary phase exhibits lower polarity than any other polar-embedded packings investigated, with additional features such as low silanol activity, excellent compatibility with 100% aqueous mobile phases, higher shape selectivity for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and strong affinity to nitro-containing compounds.