Further investigations of the effect of pressure on retention in ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography

In this study, we investigated further the large increases in retention with pressure that we observed previously in RP-LC especially for ionised solutes. These findings were initially confirmed on a conventional silica C₁₈ column, which gave extremely similar results to the hybrid C₁₈ phase originally used. Large increases in retention factor of ∼50% for a pressure increase of 500 bar were also shown for high MW polar but neutral solutes. However, experiments with the same bases in ionised and non-ionised forms suggest that somewhat greater pressure-induced retention increases are found for ionised solutes. Retention increases with pressure were found to be considerably smaller for a C₁ column compared with a C₁₈ column; decreases in retention with increasing pressure were noted for ionised bases when using a bare silica column in the hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) mode. These observations are consistent with the partial loss of the solvation layer in RP-LC as the solute is forced into the hydrophobic environment of the stationary phase, and consequent reduction in the solute molar volume, while the water layer on the surface of a HILIC packing increases the hydration of a basic analyte. Finally, retention changes with pressure in RP-LC can also be observed at a mobile phase pH close to the solute pK_a, due to changes in pK_a with pressure. However, this effect has no influence on the results of most of our studies.     

Optimization of artificial neural network for retention modeling in high-performance liquid chromatography

An artificial neural network (ANN) model for the prediction of retention times in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed and optimized. A three-layer feed-forward ANN has been used to model retention behavior of nine phenols as a function of mobile phase composition (methanol-acetic acid mobile phase). The number of hidden layer nodes, number of iteration steps and the number of experimental data points used for training set were optimized. By using a relatively small amount of experimental data (25 experimental data points in the training set), a very accurate prediction of the retention (percentage normalized differences between the predicted and the experimental data less than 0.6%) was obtained. It was shown that the prediction ability of ANN model linearly decreased with the reduction of number of experiments for the training data set. The results obtained demonstrate that ANN offers a straightforward way for retention modeling in isocratic HPLC separation of a complex mixture of compounds widely different in pK_a and log K_ow values.     

Studies on the retention behaviour of some thiazolylazo derivatives in reversed phase liquid chromatography

The retention behaviour of thiazolylazo derivatives, 4-(2-thiazolylazo) resorcinol (TAR), 4-(2-thiazolylazo)-orcinol (TAO), 2-(2-thiazolylazo)-4-methylphenol (TAC) and 1-(2-thiazolylazo)-2-naphtol (TAN) was studied by reversed phase liquid chromatography. The optimum conditions for the separation of four thiazolylazo derivatives were examined with respect to column, flow rate, mobile phase composition and pH of mobile phase. These derivatives were separated simultaneously on Symmetry C₈ column using composition of acetonitrile/water (60/40, v/v) as mobile phase. The capacity factor (k′) has been decreased at higher pH than pK_a of solute which may due to the increasing concentration of the ionized species as increase the pH of mobile phase. The dependence of log k′ on the volume faction of water in the binary mobile phase and k′ on the liquid–liquid extraction distribution ratio (D_c) in acetonitrile–water (60/40, v/v)/n-octane extraction system for thiazolylazo derivatives were obtained good linear relationship. The results showed that the retention behaviour of these derivatives was mainly affected by the hydrophobic interaction between thiazolylazo as solute and mobile phase.     

A Novel RP-LC Method for Determination of pK a Values of Some Anticancer Agents and Their Assay

A simple, reliable, and rapid RP-LC method has been developed for the determination of some anticancer drugs (daunorubicin, doxorubicin and vincristine sulfate) in their dosage forms and human urine. These compounds are well separated on a C18 column using the mobile phase consisting of a mixture of acetonitrile (50:50; v/v) at a flow rate of 1.5 mL min^?1. The analyte peaks were detected at 235 nm for doxorubicin and daunorubicin, and 220 nm for vincristine. Linearity was obtained in different concentration ranges between 0.10 and 12 μg mL^?1 for all compounds. Good sensitivity for all analytes was observed with DAD detection. LOD and LOQ of the method were found satisfying. The proposed method has been extensively validated in accordance with ICH guidelines and obtained results proved that the proposed method was precise, accurate, selective, and sensitive for simultaneous analysis of studied compounds. All analytical procedures including sample preparation, flow rate, and run time were at low levels. Also, pK _a values were determined using the dependence of the retention factor on the pH of the mobile phase. The effect of the mobile phase composition on the ionization constant was studied by measuring the pK _a at different methanol–water mixtures, ranging between 45 and 60 % (v/v).     

A validated RP-LC method for salmeterol and fluticasone in their binary mixtures and their stress degradation behavior under ICH-recommended stress conditions

Simple, accurate, precise and fully validated analytical methods for the simultaneous determination of salmeterol xinafoate and fluticasone propionate in combined dosage forms have been developed. These drugs were exposed to thermal, photolytic, hydrolytic and oxidative stress conditions, and the stressed samples were detected by the proposed method. Additionally, pK _a values of three ionizable drugs (salmeterol xinafoate, fluticasone propionate and thioridazine) were determined using by the dependence of the retention factor on pH of the mobile phase. The effect of the mobile phase composition on the ionization constant was studied by measuring the pK _a in different acetonitrile-water mixtures, ranging between 50 and 65% (v/v) using LC-UV method.     

Influence of pH and organic modifiers on the dissociation constants of selected drugs using reversed‐phase thin‐layer chromatography: Comparison with other techniques and computational tools

Knowledge of the acid–base dissociation constants of drugs is the key to understanding their biopharmaceutical characteristics. In the present work, the effect of pH and organic modifiers (acetonitrile and methanol) was investigated in the determination of dissociation constants (pK_a) of nine representative drugs (atenolol, betahistine, clarithromycin, deferiprone, diclofenac, ibuprofen, metoprolol, naproxen and propranolol) using reversed‐phase thin‐layer chromatography. Mobile phase consisting of various buffers and methanol–acetonitrile (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60%, v/v) was used to evaluate the retention pattern on reversed‐phase plates. Compared with methanol, acetonitrile gave better results for the experimentally determined pK_a values by extrapolation to zero organic modifier volume fractions. To assess the effectiveness of the developed method the results were correlated using principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The calculated values of the aqueous dissociation constant were compared with those reported previously using potentiometry and capillary electrophoresis and also with different computational platforms like ACD/Lab, ChemAxon and Jchem calculator. The results obtained by the RPTLC method were in good agreement with potentiometric methods for pK_a determination.     

Peculiarities of Mobile Phases Containing Formic Acid

Formic acid is often used for pH adjustment in RP–LC mobile phases. However, under certain circumstances, formic acid can also behave as an organic co-solvent. This study illustrates two scenarios when the effects of formic acid as co-solvent will be most noticeable. One scenario is for water-rich mobile phases, in which the addition of formic acid will cause small but significant decreases in retention of neutral analytes. The other scenario is in gradient chromatography. It is demonstrated that, during acetonitrile solvent gradients, desorption of formic acid from the column stationary phase occurs simultaneously, potentially causing a spike in UV detector baselines at the beginning of gradients. A pK _a value of formic acid obtained in 50% acetonitrile is also reported and the impact of organic solvent on the dissociation of formic acid is discussed.     

Insights into the retention mechanism on an octadecylsiloxane-bonded silica stationary phase (HyPURITY C18) in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Plots of the retention factor against mobile phase composition were used to organize a varied group of solutes into three categories according to their retention mechanism on an octadecylsiloxane-bonded silica stationary phase HyPURITY C18 with methanol-water and acetonitrile-water mobile phase compositions containing 10-70% (v/v) organic solvent. The solutes in category 1 could be fit to a general retention model, Eq. (2), and exhibited normal retention behavior for the full composition range. The solutes in category 2 exhibited normal retention behavior at high organic solvent composition with a discontinuity at low organic solvent compositions. The solutes in category 3 exhibited a pronounced step or plateau in the middle region of the retention plots with a retention mechanism similar to category 1 solutes at mobile phase compositions after the discontinuity and a different retention mechanism before the discontinuity. Selecting solutes and appropriate composition ranges from the three categories where a single retention mechanism was operative allowed modeling of the experimental retention factors using the solvation parameter model. These models were then used to predict retention factors for solutes not included in the models. The overwhelming number of residual values [log k (experimental) - log k (model predicted)] were negative and could be explained by contributions from steric repulsion, defined as the inability of the solute to insert itself fully into the stationary phase because of its bulkiness (i.e., volume and/or shape). Steric repulsion is shown to strongly depend on the mobile phase composition and was more significant for mobile phases with a low volume fraction of organic solvent in general and for mobile phases containing methanol rather than acetonitrile. For mobile phases containing less than about 20 % (v/v) organic solvent the mobile phase was unable to completely wet the stationary phase resulting in a significant change in the phase ratio and for acetonitrile (but less so methanol) changes in the solvation environment indicated by a discontinuity in the system maps.     

Determination of pKa values of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug‐oxicams by RP–HPLC and their analysis in pharmaceutical dosage forms

In this study, pK_a values were determined by using the dependence of the capacity factor on the pH of the mobile phase for four ionizable substances, namely, tenoxicam, piroxicam, meloxicam, and naproxen (I.S.). The effect of the mobile phase composition on the ionization constant was studied by measuring the pK_a at different ACN concentrations, ranging from 30 to 40%. The adequate condition for the chromatographic determination of these compounds in pharmaceutical dosage forms was established based on the different retention behaviors of the species. An octadecylsilica Nucleosil C18 column (150×4.6 mm, 5 μm) was used for all the determinations. The chromatographic separation of oxicams was carried out using acetonitrile (ACN)/water at 35% v/v, containing 65 mM phosphoric acid and UV detection at a wavelength of 355 nm. The method developed was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of these drug compounds in laboratory‐prepared mixtures and their commercial pharmaceutical dosage forms. Each analysis requires no longer than 12 min.     

Retention of ionisable compounds on high-performance liquid chromatography XVIII: pH variation in mobile phases containing formic acid,piperazine, tris,boric acid or carbonate as buffering systems and acetonitrile as organic modifier

In the present work dissociation constants of commonly used buffering species, formic acid, piperazine, tris(hydroxymethyl)–aminomethane, boric acid and carbonate, have been determined for several acetonitrile–water mixtures. From these pK_a values a previous model has been successfully evaluated to estimate pH values in acetonitrile–aqueous buffer mobile phases from the aqueous pH and concentration of the above mentioned buffers up to 60% of acetonitrile, and aqueous buffer concentrations between 0.005 (0.001 mol L⁻¹ for formic acid–formate) and 0.1 mol L⁻¹. The relationships derived for the presently studied buffers, together with those established for previously considered buffering systems, allow a general prediction of the pH variation of the most commonly used HPLC buffers when the composition of the acetonitrile–water mobile phase changes during the chromatographic process, such as in gradient elution. Thus, they are an interesting tool that can be easily implemented in general retention models to predict retention of acid–base analytes and optimize chromatographic separations.