Reversed-phase Stationary Phases Research Articles

Performance evaluation of 2-undecylimidazole/propyl methacrylate bifunctional silica gel for mixed-mode reversed-phase/anion-exchange chromatography

In this work, 2-undecylimidazole (UI) and propyl methacrylate (PMA) dual-functionalized silica gel was prepared and applied as a mixed-mode chromatographic stationary phase. Successful preparation of this stationary phase (SiO2-UI-PMA) was proved through a range of characterization techniques. The chromatographic performance of the obtained SiO2-UI-PMA was investigated for the separation of environmental endocrine disruptors (phthalates, steroid hormones, bisphenols and alkylphenols), sulfonamides and food-borne stimulants in reversed-phase chromatography, as well as for the separation of inorganic anions in anion-exchange chromatography. The effect of column temperature, acetonitrile content, salt concentration and mobile phase pH on retention was studied to explore the separation mechanism, and the results indicated that this stationary phase provided multiple interactions with analytes. Compared with the commercial C18 column, the SiO2-UI-PMA demonstrated more preferable separation ability under the mobile phase conditions with a low content of acetonitrile, thereby acting as a good alternative candidate for the conventional reversed-phase stationary phase in chromatographic analysis. Furthermore, the SiO2-UI-PMA stationary phase exhibited high column efficiency (45 860 plates m−1 for progesterone) even though it was prepared from the non-serviceable silica based chromatographic packing materials.

Grafting of Tetraphenylethylene on Silica Surface, Characterizations, and Their Chromatographic Performance as Reversed-Phase Stationary Phases.

Surface modification is an effective way to functionalize the materials so as to get some special properties. Tetraphenylethylene (TPE) has been widely investigated as a well-known reagent which has the nature of aggregation-induced emission (AIE), but has never been reported in the liquid chromatography stationary phase. In this work, TPE-grafted silica (Sil-TPE) was obtained successfully using the derivative of 1-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-1,2,2-triphenylethylene as a ligand, and then characterized by elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectra, thermogravimetric analysis, and so forth. Laser scanning confocal microscopy images reflected the AIE phenomenon of grafted TPE because the internal vibration and rotation of TPE molecules were restrained in the confined silica space. The contact angle test showed superhydrophobic properties of Sil-TPE. In order to understand thoroughly the mechanism of chromatographic performance and retention behavior for Sil-TPE, Tanaka test mixture, alkylbenzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and phenols were separated. This reveals that Sil-TPE has strong aromaticity and certain shape selectivity, especially, has excellent separation performance for PAHs and phenols. The thermodynamic properties and repeatability of Sil-TPE were further studied, which showed the stability of Sil-TPE. This work shows that TPE can be successfully grafted on silica surface and it has the potential to be a new kind of promising stationary phases in the future.

Effect of phenyl numbers in polyphenyl ligand on retention properties of aromatic stationary phases

Aromatic phase, as one type of reversed-phase stationary phases, shows complementary selectivity to the n-alkyl counterparts especially for certain challenging separation tasks. However, effect of phenyl numbers in aromatic ligands on retention behaviors has rarely been addressed compared with the alkyl stationary phases. To illustrate the issue, a series of polyphenyl stationary phases were facially prepared via the coupling chemistry of isocyanate with amine, including aniline (π1), 4-aminobiphenyl (π2), 4-amino-p-terphenyl (π3) and [1,1′:4′,1′':4′',1′''-quaterphenyl]-4-amine (π4), respectively. The chromatographic behaviors of the new stationary phases as well as the traditional C18 were systematically compared in terms of retention mode, hydrophobic and aromatic selectivity, shape selectivity and π-π interaction by various analytes, including alkylbenzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons congeners and substituted benzenes with electron-withdrawing groups. Due to the homologous structure of four polyphenyl ligands, the hydrophobic selectivity, aromatic selectivity and shape selectivity of stationary phases increase with phenyl numbers in the bonded polyphenyl ligands, whereas the increment becomes insignificant from U-π3 to U-π4. This phenomenon is explained by the insertion degree of analytes in the polyphenyl ligand brushes. Compared with the homemade C18, the polyphenyl phases indicate insignificant changes of shape selectivity with temperature. Notably, the new polyphenyl phases demonstrate the great selective separation towards the electron-deficient compounds through the π-π interaction. These findings make up for the understanding of the retention behavior of aromatic stationary phases.

Retention mechanisms of acidic and basic analytes on the Pentafluorophenyl stationary phase using fluorinated eluent additives

This work explores the effects of three selected fluoroalcohols - 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP), 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluorotert‑butyl alcohol (HFTB) and hexafluoro-2,3-(trifluoromethyl)-2,3-butanediol (PP) as novel eluent additives and their effect on the retention of basic and acidic analytes, using a reversed phase (RP) column with a fluorophenyl (PFP) stationary phase. In order to observe the changes in the model analytes’ retention, chromatograms were obtained at multiple (5.0; 6.0; 7.0; 8.5; 9.0 and 9.5) pH values depending on the eluent. The retention observed with fluoroalcohols was compared with that of a conventional eluent additive - ammonium acetate. When fluoroalcohols were used as eluent additives, a decrease in the retention factors (compared with ammonium acetate) was generally observed for strong acids. The retention factors of strong bases were generally higher when using HFIP and HFTB as eluent additives. The behaviour of weak bases and weak acids was more nuanced, potentially enabling interesting selectivity. The extent of the effect regarding different fluoroalcohols also varied, with HFIP and HFTB having a more significant effect on the retention of analytes than PP. The retention data were interpreted in terms of the hypothesis that four interactions are at play: (a) hydrophobic retention typical to RP; (b) π-π interactions between the analytes containing an aromatic ring and the aromatic rings on the stationary phase; (c) charge-charge or hydrogen bond interactions between the analytes and partially deprotonated fluoroalcohols adsorbed on the stationary phase and (d) a hydrogen bond or charge-charge interaction between the free silanol groups or their deprotonated forms on the stationary phase and the analytes (either neutral or ionic). Alternative selectivity obtained through fluoroalcohols on the PFP stationary phase was compared with the C18 and biphenyl stationary phases. It was demonstrated that at the same eluent pH but with a different buffer system and/or different RP stationary phases, very different selectivity and retention order can be obtained.

Liquid chromatographic study of two structural isomeric pentacyclic triterpenes on reversed-phase stationary phase with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin as mobile phase additive

Retention behavior of two structural isomeric pentacyclic triterpenic acids, maslinic acid and corosolic acid, was investigated by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HP-β-CD) as mobile phase additive. Inclusion complexation of maslinic acid, corosolic acid with hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin was evaluated under different concentration of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. Apparent formation constant (Km) between methanol and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin was determined to be 13.82 L mol−1 under 25 °C using UV-spectrophotometry. Two retention models were employed individually for evaluation of inclusion complexation between the two pentacyclic triterpenic acids and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin. It was found that a higher apparent formation constant (Kf) for corosolic acid and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin was obtained, 19115 L mol−1, indicating that a greater affinity of hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin with corosolic acid was produced compared with that of maslinic acid, 11775 L mol−1, in the selected mobile phase, and stoichiometric ratio for both of inclusion complex was found to be 1:1. Thermodynamic analysis showed that a negative standard enthalpy change (ΔH) and an entropy change (ΔS*) for analyte transfer were obtained, where ΔH of maslinic acid and corosolic acid was found to be −10.188 kJ mol−1 and −10.650 kJ mol−1, ΔS* of two compounds was −2.092 and −2.180, respectively, indicating that transfer of structural isomers from mobile phase to stationary phase was enthalpically driven. Meanwhile, positive values were obtained for standard enthalpy change and standard entropy change, 136 kJ mol−1 and 274 kJ mol−1 and 536 J mol−1 K−1and 1004 J mol−1 K−1, for inclusion complexation between maslinic acid, corosolic acid and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin, while negative values were obtained for Gibbs free energy during formation of inclusion complex, −160 kJ mol−1 and −299 kJ mol−1, indicating a spontaneous inclusion reaction happened.

A strategy for efficient enrichment of steroidal alkaloids from Fritillaria based on fluorinated reversed-phase stationary phase.

Plant-derived alkaloids are bioactive natural ingredients, but their contents are relatively low in plants. Therefore, the efficient enrichment of alkaloids is a prerequisite for purification and further pharmacological research. In this study, an efficient and simple strategy for enrichment of steroidal alkaloids in Fritillaria was developed for the first time based on the fluorinated reverse-phase stationary phase (FC8HL). Superior selectivity between alkaloids and non-alkaloids was achieved in a non-aqueous system, and a simple solvent system containing low-content additives was applied to elute alkaloids. Key parameters that affected the elution were investigated, including different types of buffer salts and optimized concentrations. The optimized elution system was then applied to selectively enrich alkaloids from five species of Fritillaria. Its practicability was further demonstrated by enrichment of alkaloids from Fritillaria cirrhosa D.Don at a preparative level. This developed method has great potential for other types of hydrophobic alkaloids.

Isolation of three polyoxins by reversed-phase liquid chromatography with pure aqueous mobile phase.

Developing methods for the isolation of highly polar compounds from complex samples is of great significance. In this study, three polyoxins were successfully isolated from a complex sample (PN1-1# ) by preparative high-performance liquid chromatography. Separation was carried out on five polar reversed-phase stationary phases, using pure aqueous as mobile phase, where the C18HC column can provide the best performance for PN1-1# . Next, the effects of the mobile phase composition were studied. It was found that adding NaClO4 can enhance the retention and resolution, and adding NaH2 PO4 was beneficial to maintain good peak shapes when the sample loading increased. Therefore, the optimized mobile phase consisting of 20mmol NaH2 PO4 and 20mmol NaClO4 (adding H3 PO4 to adjust pH2) was used to separate PN1-1# . This method of using 100% aqueous phase can effectively improve both the retention and the solubility of polar samples. Eventually, through further purification, three compounds, namely, polyoxins B, D, and G, were obtained. This paper provided an effective and eco-friendly strategy for the preparative-scale separation of polar samples.

In-Depth Annotation Strategy of Saturated Hydroxy Fatty Acids Based on Their Chromatographic Retention Behaviors and MS Fragmentation Patterns.

Hydroxy fatty acids are a class of bioactive compounds in a variety of organisms. The identification of hydroxy fatty acids in biological samples has still been a challenge because of their low abundance, high structural similarity, and limited availability of authentic hydroxy fatty acid standards. Here, we present a strategy for the annotation of saturated monohydroxyl fatty acids (OH-FAs) based on the integration of chromatographic retention rules and MS2 fragmentation patterns. Thirty-nine authentic OH-FA standards were used to investigate their retention behavior on a reversed-phase stationary phase (C18) of liquid chromatography, and we found that their retention simultaneously follows two kinds of "carbon number rules". Using the "carbon number rules", the retention index (RI) of all OH-FAs that contain carbon numbers from 8 to 18 (C8-18) can be predicted. Additionally, by studying the MS2 fragmentation of OH-FAs under collision-induced dissociation, we found that the intensity ratio (IR) of the characteristic fragment ions ([M + H]+-63 and [M + H]+-45) is closely related to the position of the hydroxyl group on the OH-FA structure, which is helpful to further identify and confirm the OH-FA isomers. As a result, 97 of 107 potential OH-FAs detected in honey, human serum, and rice seedling by chemical isotope labeling-assisted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry were annotated upon the RI matching and IR confirming. Furthermore, in order to simplify the annotation process of OH-FAs, we constructed an OH-FA library to facilitate the annotation of OH-FAs. Overall, this study provides a new and promising tool for the in-depth annotation of OH-FA isomers.

In situ growth of COF-rLZU1 on the surface of silica sphere as stationary phase for high performance liquid chromatography

The composite materials consist of Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) and silica have been regarded as a kind of promising stationary phases due to combination of the large specific surface area and good mechanical strength of porous silica microspheres and the porous structure and the excellent stability of COFs. Herein, a novel COFs-silica composite (SiO2@rLZU1, reduced Lan Zhou University-1) was prepared via an in-situ growth strategy with a 32 nm-thick COFs layer on the surface of silica and a 2.2 nm-thick COFs layer on the inner surface of the mesopores of spherical silica (5 μm, 120 Å). With secondary amine and phenyl groups, the novel stationary phase provided hydrophilic, hydrophobic and π-π interactions when used in HPLC, showing different selectivity from typical reversed-phase stationary phases. Probe molecules with aromatic moieties varying in polarity, including acidic (phenol, pyrocatechol, and pyrogallol), basic (aniline, 4-chloroaniline, and 4-nitroaniline) and neutral (benzene homologues) compounds, were all baseline separated on the SiO2@rLZU1 column, indicating its excellent separation performance. Besides, the SiO2@rLZU1 column also exhibited great repeatability with intraday RSDs of the retention time of three anilines less than 0.31% (n = 6) and peak area less than 1.63% (n = 6). On the SiO2@rLZU1 column, satisfied results were achieved in the separation of real samples such as fullerenes and coking wastewater, suggesting the great potential of the as-synthesized stationary phase in HPLC applications.

Estimation of Solute-Stationary Phase and Solute-Mobile Phase Interactions in the Presence of Ionic Liquids

The presence of free silanols on alkyl-bonded reversed-phase stationary phases is responsible for broad and asymmetrical peaks when basic drugs are chromatographed with conventional octadecylsilane (C18) columns due to ionic interactions. In the last few years, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted attention to reduce this undesirable silanol activity. ILs should be considered as dual modifiers (with a cationic and anionic character), which means that both cations and anions are able to adsorb on the stationary phase, creating a positively or negatively charged layer, depending on the relative adsorption. The accessibility of basic compounds to the silanols is prevented by both the IL cation and anion, improving the peak profiles. A comparative study of the performance of six imidazolium-based ILs, differing in their cation/anions, as modifiers of the chromatographic behavior of a group of ten β-adrenoceptor antagonists, is addressed. Mobile phases containing cationic amines (triethylamine and dimethyloctylamine) were used as a reference for the interpretation of the results. Using a mathematical model based on two chemical equilibria, the association constants between the solutes and modified stationary phase as well as those between solutes and the additive in the mobile phase were estimated. These values, together with the changes in retention and peak shape, were used to obtain conclusions about the retention mechanism, changes in the nature of the chromatographic system, and silanol suppression effect.

Fast reversed-phase liquid chromatographic separation of proteins by flow-through poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) microspheres.

With the explosive growth of the bioscience and biopharmaceuticals, the demand for high efficient analysis and separation of proteins is urgent. High-performance liquid chromatography is an appropriate technology for this purpose, and the stationary phase is the kernel to the separation efficiency. In this study, flow-through poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) microspheres characteristic of the binary pores, i.e. flow-through pores and mesopores, were synthesized; this special porous structure would benefit the convective mass transfer while guarantee the high specific surface area. Owing to the hydrophobic nature, poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) microspheres were suitable as the reversed-phase stationary phase for separation of proteins. For the high permeability of the poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) microspheres packed column, fast separation of the studied six proteins in ∼2min was achieved. The recoveries of studied proteins were acceptable in the range of 79.0-99.4%. The proposed column had good pH stability of 1-13 and repeatability. Moreover, the column was applied for egg white fast separation, further demonstrating its applicability for complex bio-sample separation. The flow-through poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) microspheres were promising for fast separation of large molecules.

Simultaneous Capillary Liquid Chromatography Determination of Drugs in Pharmaceutical Preparations Using Tunable Platforms of Polymethacrylate Monolithic Columns Modified with Octadecylamine

Nowadays, analytical techniques tend to develop cheap and green approaches to reduce the costs and minimize environmental impacts. In this study, poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) monoliths were prepared in capillary columns (0.25 mm i.d. × 20 cm length) as reactive and tunable platforms, and then simply functionalized based on a ring-opening reaction of epoxide with octadecylamine. The columns were successfully used as reversed-phase stationary phases for determination of ascorbic acid, paracetamol, caffeine, aspirin, and ibuprofen in pharmaceutical combinations. The synthesized monoliths have been estimated by FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM and specific surface area; also, the porous and hydrodynamic properties have verified the differences before and after modification. While the columns before modification were unable to separate the drugs, the columns after amination allowed for the complete separation of the five drugs in about 10 min at 23 µL min−1 flow rate with chromatographic resolution more than 2.12. The developed assay showed excellent suitability (RSDs < 2.6%), wide linear ranges (0.07–300 µg mL−1), sensitive detection limits (0.022–0.060 µg mL−1), good repeatability (RSDs < 4.76%) and acceptable columns reproducibility (RSDs < 18.58%). The method was successfully applied for commercial pharmaceutical preparations; the average recovery values were found to be in the range of 98.03–104.54% (RSDs < 5.51%). The satisfactory recovery percentages along with the perfect correlation between the retentions of standard compounds and the active ingredients extracted from the commercial tablets indicate the accuracy and selectivity of the developed method. The prepared columns and validated method were finally compared with previous reports, particularly commercial C18 stationary phases. This is a very useful comparison due to the structural similarity between the prepared polymeric materials and C18 particulate stationary phases. The prepared capillary columns exhibited various advantages such as the fast separation time, wide linear ranges, low analysis costs, and trivial environmental wastes.

Evaluation of Different Stationary Phases in the Separation of Inter-Cross-Linked Peptides

Chemical cross-linking coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) is becoming a routinely and widely used technique for depicting and constructing protein structures and protein interaction networks. One major challenge for cross-linking/MS is the determination of informative low-abundant inter-cross-linked products, generated within a sample of high complexity. A C18 stationary phase is the conventional means for reversed-phase (RP) separation of inter-cross-linked peptides. Various RP stationary phases, which provide different selectivities and retentions, have been developed as alternatives to C18 stationary phases. In this study, two phenyl-based columns, biphenyl and fluorophenyl, were investigated and compared with a C18 phase for separating BS3 (bis(sulfosuccinimidyl)suberate) cross-linked bovine serum albumin (BSA) and myoglobin by bottom-up proteomics. Fractions from the three columns were collected and analyzed in a linear ion trap (LIT) mass spectrometer for improving detection of low abundant inter-cross-linked peptides. Among these three columns, the fluorophenyl column provides additional ion-exchange interaction and exhibits unique retention in separating the cross-linked peptides. The fractioned data was analyzed in pLink, showing the fluorophenyl column consistently obtained more inter-cross-linked peptide identifications than both C18 and biphenyl columns. For the BSA cross-linked sample, the identified inter-cross-linked peptide numbers of the fluorophenyl to C18 column are 136 to 102 in "low confident" results and 11 to 6 in "high confident" results. The fluorophenyl column could potentially be a better alternative for targeting the low stoichiometric inter-cross-linked peptides.

Synthesis and chromatographic evaluation of phenyl/tetrazole bonded stationary phase based on thiol-epoxy ring opening reaction.

A silica-based reversed-phase stationary phase bonding with phenyl and tetrazole groups was synthesized by thiol-epoxy ring opening reaction. The bonded groups could not only provide hydrophobic interaction, but also π-π, hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and so on. The results of characterization with elemental analysis and solid-state 13 C cross-polarization magic-angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy indicated the successful preparation of phenyl/tetrazole sulfoether bonded stationary phase. Chromatographic evaluation revealed that phenyl/tetrazole sulfoether bonded stationary phase behaved well under the reversed-phase mode. The column parameters (H, S*, A, B, and C) showed different selectivity compared with some typical commercial columns, and it was validated by the separation of estrogen, ginsenoside, alkaloid samples. Based on the different selectivity between phenyl/tetrazole sulfoether bonded stationary phase and C18 columns, phenyl/tetrazole sulfoether bonded stationary phase also showed potential to construct a 2D reversed-phase liquid chromatography system with C18. And it was verified by the separation of corydalis tuber and curcuma zedoary extracts.

Quantitative determination of sodium stearyl fumarate in a tablet formulation from continuous manufacturing using a high-pH reversed-phase HPLC method

ABSTRACTThis study demonstrates the first use of a reversed-phase (RP) high-performance liquid chromatography method with a high-pH buffer for the analysis of sodium stearyl fumarate (SSF) from a tablet formulation. After examining the retention time and peak shape using various buffer concentrations, buffer pH, and RP stationary phases, an optimized method was established using the XBridge® BEH C18 at high pH. This column was further evaluated for method specificity, accuracy, precision, linearity, stability, and sensitivity. Finally, the method was successfully used as a convenient and robust analytical procedure to accurately quantitate SSF in stratified tablets from a continuous manufacturing process to confirm the excipient uniformity throughout the process.

Organic solvent modifier and temperature effects in non-aqueous size-exclusion chromatography on reversed-phase columns

Common reversed-phase columns (C18, C4, phenyl, and cyano) offer inert surfaces suitable for the analysis of polymers by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). The effect of tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent and the mixtures of THF with a variety of common solvents used in high performance liquid chromatography (acetonitrile, methanol, dimethylformamide, 2-propanol, ethanol, acetone and chloroform) on reversed-phase stationary phase characteristics relevant to size exclusion were studied. The effect of solvent on the elution of polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and the effect of column temperature (within a relatively narrow range corresponding to typical chromatographic conditions, i.e., 10°C–60°C) on the SEC partition coefficients KSEC of PS and PMMA polymers, were also investigated. The bonded phases show remarkable differences in size separations when binary mixtures of THF with other solvents are used as the mobile phase. The solvent impact can be two-fold: (i) change of the polymeric coil size, and possible shape, and (ii) change of the stationary phase pore volume. If the effect of this impact is properly moderated, then the greatest benefit of optimized solute resolution can be achieved. Additionally, this work provides an insight on solvent-stationary phase interactions and their effects on column pore volume. The only effect of temperature observed in our studies was a decreased elution volume of the polymers with increasing temperature. SEC partition coefficients were temperature-independent in the range of 10°C–60°C and therefore, over this temperature range elution of PS and PMMA polymers is by near-ideal SEC on reversed-phase columns. Non-ideal SEC appears to occur for high molar mass PMMA polymers on a cyano column when alcohols are used as mobile phase modifiers.

Fast ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array and mass spectrometry method for determination of tadalafil drug substance and its impurities.

Tadalafil is used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Its related patents expired in 2016, and so related generic drug production is predicted to be increased. This work is focused on developing a fast ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection and/or mass spectrometry detection for the separation and determination of tadalafil and its impurities in pharmaceutical samples. A modern reversed-phase stationary phase with sub-2 μm particle size, Zorbax StableBond Rapid Resolution High Definition with octylsilane chemically bonded phase to totally porous silica particles, was used for the solving this problem. Column temperature was set at 40 ± 0.1°C. A mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and aqueous solution of 0.1% (v/v) trifluoroacetic acid for diode array detection detection and 0.05% (v/v) formic acid, both running at a flow rate of 0.62 mL/min, were used to achieve the required separation of all components within a 5 min run. The limit of detection was 3.5 μg/L and the limit of quantification was 10.0 μg/L for the method for both UV and MS detectors. Accurate mass spectra of tadalafil's related impurities are shown for advanced confirmation. The method is directly transferable to routine analysis of tadalafil in pharmaceutical and control laboratories.

A simple synthetic route for the preparation of a reversed-phase stationary phase based on monosized-porous hydrogel beads and its chromatographic use for separation of small molecules

New polyacrylate-based monosized-porous polymer beads were proposed as a stationary phase for the separation of polar compounds by microbore reversed-phase chromatography. For this purpose, monosized-porous poly(glycerol dimethacrylate-co-glycerol-1,3-diglycerolate diacrylate), poly(GDMA-co-GDGDA), beads with hydroxyl functionality were synthesized by a modified seeded polymerization. The selected octadecylating agent, stearoyl chloride (SC), was covalently attached onto the hydrophilic beads via a direct, single stage reaction with a simple synthetic route. SC attached-poly( GDMA-co-GDGDA) beads were slurry-packed into the microbore columns and used as separation medium microbore reversed-phase chromatography. The stationary phase was used for separation of alkylbenzenes and polar analytes by micro reversed-phase chromatography, using mobile phases with low acetonitrile content. Theoretical plate number (TPN) values up to 12,000 plates m−1 and 10,000 plates m−1 for alkylbenzenes and polar analytes, respectively, were achieved. The results also showed that poly(GDMA-co-GDGDA) hydrogel beads are a promising starting material for a number of chromatographic applications like reversed-phase (RP) chromatography, hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC), ion-exchange chromatography (IEC), and affinity chromatography with a single-stage surface modification.

Design of strategies to study the metabolic profile of highly polar compounds in plasma by reversed-phase liquid chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry

Amino acids and related compounds are paramount analytes which are involved in numerous metabolic pathways. Most of these compounds are unable to be retained on Liquid Chromatography with Reversed-Phase stationary phases due to their high hydrophilic character. An interesting strategy is to reduce their polarity through their derivatization with a labelling reagent, such as the commercially available 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (FMOC) which forms stable complexes with primary and secondary amine moieties rapidly. Although some derivatization reagents have been employed in the study of metabolic profiles, as far as we know, FMOC has never been employed for this purpose. In this work, it is demonstrated that the use of RP-LCMS(TOF) using a C18 column and FMOC as labelling agent enables the determination of a larger number of hydrophilic compounds (proteinogenic amino acids, non-proteinogenic amino acids, and biogenic amines) when compared to the use of a fully-wettable pentafluorophenyl column in fully-aqueous conditions (gradient starting in 0% of organic solvent) and HILIC column, both without using compound derivatization. Different strategies for plasma protein elimination were also carefully evaluated. Results revealed that ultrafiltration (UF) offered a lower variability from sample to sample when compared to the protein precipitation (PP) method (from 2 to 12 times lower variability found in UF). Additionally, UF preserved a larger number of possible compounds when compared to the PP approach: 4631 unique molecular features with UF, 666 unique molecular features with PP.

A simple method for measuring excess adsorption isotherms of organic eluent components on reversed-phase packing materials.

A simple frontal analysis method has been developed for the reliable measurement of excess adsorption isotherms of an organic component on reversed-phase adsorbents in a series of programmed concentration steps. In the present method, a peak, which is produced by refractive index change in column eluate, is detected at 589 nm; it represents the elution volume of the boundary. The method is applied to the measurement of the excess adsorption isotherms of organic eluent components from water on commercially available reversed-phase stationary phases. The results are in good agreement with the previously reported isotherms. We also measure the excess adsorption isotherms of organic eluent components from solutions containing electrolytes. There are not any interference peaks on the elution traces. The method is thus reliably applicable to the evaluation of the excess adsorption of organic eluent components in practical systems.