Phase separation and extraction with acetonitrile for sample preparation in HPLC analysis

Summary Acetonitrile can be salted-out from aqueous solution by adding tetrabutylammonium perchlorate. This phase separation method has been used for the extraction of the Fe(III)-4,7-diphenylphenanthroline complex into acetonitrile followed by direct injection onto an ODS column. The Fe complex is separated by using 9:1 acetonitrile/water as a mobile phase. The proposed reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography has been applied to the determination of Fe in serum.