Influence of the pressure on the properties of chromatographic columns .III. retention volume of thiourea, hold-up volume, and compressibility of the C18-bonded layer

The influence of the average column pressure (ACP) on the elution volume of thiourea was measured on two RPLC columns, packed with Resolve-C18 (surface coverage 2.45 micromol/m2) and Symmetry-C18 (surface coverage 3.18 micromol/m2), and it was compared to that measured under the same conditions on an underivatized silica (Resolve). Five different methanol-water mixtures (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% methanol, v/v) were used. Once corrected for the compressibility of the mobile phase, the data show that the elution volume of thiourea increases between 3 and 7% on the C18-bonded columns when the ACP increases from 50 to 350 bar, depending on the methanol content of the eluent. No such increase is observed on the underivatized Resolve silica column. This increase is too large to be ascribed to the compressibility of the stationary phase (silica + C18 bonded chains) which accounts for less than 5% of the variation of the retention factor. It is shown that the reason for this effect is of thermodynamic origin, the difference between the partial molar volume of the solute in the stationary and the mobile phase, Delta V, controlling the retention volume of thiourea. While Delta V is nearly constant for all mobile phase compositions on Resolve silica (with Delta V approximately equal to -4 mL/mol), on RPLC phases, it significantly increases with increasing methanol content, particularly above 60% methanol. It varies between -5 mL/mol and -17 mL/mol on Resolve-C18 and between -9 mL/mol and -25 mL/mol on Symmetry-C18. The difference in surface coverage between these two RP-HPLC stationary phases increases the values of Delta V by about 5 mL/mol.     

Dependence of the retention volumes of additional streaming current responses and of the column void volume on mobile phase composition

Summary The influence of the alcohol content of the mobile phase and water, acetic acid and aniline as mobile phase additives on the generation and shape of two additional changes of the streaming current, generated inside the liquid chromatography column by injection of any sample and recorded before the responses of retained solutes, was studied in a normal-phase system using silica gel as the stationary phase. The mobile phases were based on a n-heptane-1-propanol mixtures. Under the same conditions the relationships between the column interparticle volume, the column void volume and the total liquid volume in the column and the retention volumes of these two streaming current responses, having the form of chromatographic peaks, were studied. The column void volume was identified with the retention volume of n-octane. The total liquid volume in the column (column hold-up) was calculated from the weight loss of the column wetted with water at first and then dried in nitrogen stream. The retention volume of the first streaming current response equals the column interparticle volume disregarding the mobile phase composition. If the 95∶5 n-heptane-1-propanol mobile phase contains water up to 80% of its saturated concentration (up to 0.114% by vol.), the retention volume of the second response agrees with the total volume of the liquid in the silica gel column, with a precision better than 2%. At a higher relative water saturation the retention volume of the second response increases, while the column void volume decreases. Both changes are explained by the spontaneous formation of a highly polar stagnant liquid in the pores of the silica gel.     

Measurement of the axial and radial temperature profiles of a chromatographic column. Influence of thermal insulation on column efficiency

The temperatures of the metal wall along a chromatographic column (longitudinal temperature gradients) and of the liquid phase across the outlet section of the column (radial temperature gradients) were measured at different flow rates with the same chromatographic column (250 mm x 4.6 mm). The column was packed with 5 microm C18-bonded silica particles. The measurements were carried out with surface and immersion thermocouples (all junction Type T, +/-0.1 K) that measure the local temperature. The column was either left in a still-air bath (ambient temperature, T(ext) = 295-296 K) or insulated in a packing foam to avoid air convection around its surface. The temperature profiles were measured at several values of the inlet pressure (approximately = 100, 200, 300 and 350 bar) and with two mobile phases, pure methanol and a 2.5:97.5 (v/v, %) methanol:water solution. The experimental results show that the longitudinal temperature gradients never exceeded 8 K for a pressure drop of 350 bars. In the presence of the insulating foam, the longitudinal temperature gradients become quasi-linear and the column temperature increases by +1 and +3 K with a water-rich (heat conductivity approximately = 0.6 W/m/K) and pure methanol (heat conductivity approximately = 0.2 W/m/K), respectively. The radial temperature gradients are maximum with methanol (+1.5 K at 290 bar inlet pressure) and minimum with water (+0.8 K at 290 bar), as predicted by the solution of the heat transfer balance in a chromatographic column. The profile remains parabolic all along the column. Combining the results of these measurements (determination of the boundary conditions on the wall, at column inlet and at column outlet) with calculations using a realistic model of heat dispersion in a porous medium, the temperature inside the column could be assessed for any radial and axial position.     

Overview of the retention in subcritical fluid chromatography with varied polarity stationary phases

Retention and separation of achiral compounds in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) depend on numerous parameters: some of these parameters are identical to those encountered in HPLC, such as the mobile phase polarity, while others are specific to SFC, as the density changes of the fluid, due to temperature and/or pressure variations. Additional effects are also related to the fluid compressibility, leading to unusual retention changes in SFC, for instance when flow rate or column length is varied. These additional effects can be minimised by working at lower temperatures in the subcritical domain, simplifying the understanding of retention behaviours. In these subcritical conditions, varied modifiers can be mixed to carbon dioxide, from hexane to methanol, allowing tuning the mobile phase polarity. With nonpolar modifiers, polar stationary phases are classically used. These chromatographic conditions are close to the ones of normal-phase LC. The addition of polar modifiers such as methanol or ACN increases the mobile phase polarity, allowing working with less polar stationary phases. In this case, despite the absence of water, retention behaviours generally follow the rules of RP LC. Moreover, because identical mobile phases can be used with all stationary phase types, from polar silica to nonpolar C18-bonded silica, the classical domains, RP and normal-phase, are easily brought together in SFC. A unified classification method based on the solvation parameter model is proposed to compare the stationary phase properties used with the same subcritical mobile phase.     

Feasibility of ultra high performance supercritical neat carbon dioxide chromatography at conventional pressures

The implementation of columns packed with sub-2 μm particles in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is described using neat carbon dioxide as the mobile phase. A conventional supercritical fluid chromatograph was slightly modified to reduce extra column band broadening. Performances of a column packed with 1.8 μm C18-bonded silica particles in SFC using neat carbon dioxide as the mobile phase were compared with results obtained in ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) using a dedicated chromatograph. As expected and usual in SFC, higher linear velocities than in UHPLC must be applied in order to reach optimal efficiency owing to higher diffusion coefficient of solutes in the mobile phase; similar numbers of theoretical plates were obtained with both techniques. Very fast separations of hydrocarbons are presented using two different alkyl-bonded silica columns.     

Comparison of void volume, mobile phase volume and accessible volume determined from retention data for oligomers in reversed-phase liquid chromatographic systems

The experimental technique of mass spectrometric tracer pulse chromatography was used to determine the void volume, i.e., the total volume of eluent in the column, and the volume of eluent moving freely through the column, i.e., mobile phase volume, for a series of eluents with a C(18)-bonded RPLC column. The interstitial volume of the column was determined by size exclusion chromatography. In order to evaluate the utility of the accessible volumes determined from the retention volumes of homologous solutes, the accessible volume of the column was determined as a function of eluent composition and temperature with polystyrene and polyethylene glycol samples using Martin's Rule. Comparison of these four measured volumes indicated that the experimentally measured accessible volumes did not correspond to either the void volumes, mobile phase volumes or interstitial volumes.     

A chromatographic estimate of the degree of surface heterogeneity of reversed-phase liquid chromatography packing materials. II-Endcapped monomeric C18-bonded stationary phase

In a previous report, the heterogeneity of a non-endcapped C30-bonded stationary phase was investigated, based on the results of the measurements of the adsorption isotherms of two neutral compounds (phenol and caffeine) and two ionizable compounds (sodium naphthalene sulfonate and propranololium chloride) by frontal analysis (FA). The same method is applied here for the characterization of the surface heterogeneity of two new brands of endcapped C18-bonded stationary phases (Gemini and Sunfire). The adsorption isotherms of the same four chemicals were measured by FA and the results confirmed by the independent calculation of the adsorption energy distribution (AED), using the expectation-maximization (EM) method. The effect of the length of the bonded alkyl chain was investigated. Shorter alkyl-bonded-chains (C18 versus C30) and the end-capping of the silica surface contribute to decrease the surface heterogeneity under the same experimental conditions (30% methanol, 25 mM NaCl). The AEDs of phenol and caffeine are bimodal with the C18-bonded columns while they are trimodal and quadrimodal, respectively, with a non-endcapped C30-bonded column. The "supersites" (adsorption energy > 20 kJ/mol) found on the C30-Prontosil column and attributed to a cation exchange mechanism completely disappear on the C18-Gemini and C18-Sunfire, probably because the end-capping of the silica surface eliminates most if not all the ionic interactions.     

New pressure regulating system for constant mass flow supercritical-fluid chromatography and physico-chemical analysis of mass-flow reduction in pressure programming by analogous circuit model

Summary The newly developed regulating valve is based on high-speed flow switching, and is capable of controlling the column outlet pressure independent of the mass flow-rate of the fluid. The reproducibility of retention times in pressure-programming elution on a 4.6 mm i.d. ×250mm long silica gel column was better than 1% with supercritical carbon dioxide as the mobile phase. The outlet mass flow-rate decreased while the pressure was increasing, keeping the input flow to the system constant; this was due to the compressibility of the fluid. The amount of decrease in the outlet flow was calculated by introducing an analogous circuit model and new parameters, instrumental and column capacitances. The result agreed with the measured value within 30% error.     

Characterization of Column Hold-Up Volume with Static and Dynamic Methods on an Immobilized Polysaccharide-Based Chiral Stationary Phase

Polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs) are efficient for enantioseparation of many chiral compounds. Immobilized polysaccharide CSP, as used in the Chiralpak IA column, is a new configuration that was recently introduced for application in chiral separation. As shown in several previous studies, the characteristics of Chiralpak IA columns cannot be simply extrapolated from the coated version. In this study, hold-up volume of a Chiralpak IA column was evaluated by static and dynamic methods. The static pyconometry method gave similar hold-up volumes either as an average value from a range of solvents or a direct measurement from the carbon tetrachloride-isopropanol (IPA) solvent pair. The dynamic method with 1,3,5-tri-tert-butylbenzene (TTBB) was influenced by the ratio of n-hexane and 2-propanol in the mobile phase but not by the dissolving solvent of TTBB. The two methods resulted in the same hold-up volume of ∼3.0 mL. TTBB showed weaker retention on the IA column after correction of isobaric thermal expansion of the mobile phase. During temperature variations in the range of 15–50 °C, the hold-up volume of TTBB was highly reproducible. Results of this study improve our understanding of the chromatographic features of the immobilized polysaccharide IA column.     

Hold-up volume and its application in estimating effective phase ratio and thermodynamic parameters on a polysaccharide-coated chiral stationary phase

As an "unretained" marker, 1,3,5-tri-tert-butylbenzene (TTBB) has been commonly used to measure the hold-up volume. Despite many racemates have been resolved on Chiralcel OJ column, the hold-up volume of the column is still not well characterized. The aim of this work was to evaluate the chromatographic behavior of TTBB on the OJ column, and its application in estimating the effective phase ratio and thermodynamic parameters. The hold-up volume was affected not only by the mobile phase composition but also the solvents used for dissolving TTBB. A higher concentration of TTBB (0.500 mg/mL) showed a better reproducibility than when used at a lower concentration. After correction for thermal expansion of the mobile phase, TTBB was found to have slight retention on the OJ phase. The effective phase ratio increased with an increase in the temperature and decrease in the strength of the mobile phase. The enthalpy and entropy of enantiomers of imidazolinone herbicides were independent of the temperature in a linear van't Hoff plot when the effective phase ratio was changed. This study shows that, based on the hold-up volume from TTBB, thermodynamic evaluation with parameters derived from the distribution constant is valuable for understanding chromatographic retention and enantioseparation mechanisms of chiral analytes.     

Semi-xylenol orange and its purification by high-pressure liquid chromatography

By Mannich condensation of o-Cresol Red, iminodiacetic acid and formaldehyde, Semi-Xylenol Orange (SXO) has been prepared in a 10-hr batch-procedure with a yield of about 30%. From the crude product SXO has been isolated by reversed-phase HPLC with perchloric acid-acetone mixtures as the mobile phase and C(18)-bonded silica as the stationary phase. The SXO fraction was freed from accompanying perchloric acid by a second separation on the same column, with water as eluent. After elution with acetone, the SXO was crystallized by evaporation.     

一种新型C18酯型反相高效液相色谱填料的制备

 发展了一种用于制备反相高效液相色谱填料的实用、经 济的方法。以γ-环氧丙基氧丙基三甲氧基硅烷为中间偶联试剂,将十八烷基脂肪酸 键合至硅胶上。元素分析、色谱测试验证了该工艺的可行性和填料的反相色谱行为。     

Characterization of the properties of stationary phases for liquid chromatography in aqueous mobile phases using aromatic sulphonic acids as the test compounds

We investigated the effects of the concentration of naphthalene sulphonic acids (NSAs) as anionic test compounds in the injected sample and of the salt additives to the mobile phase on ion-exclusion. The retention behaviour of NSAs sensitively reflects even minor changes in the ionic and hydrophobic interactions and can be useful for predicting the effects of the stationary phases in reversed-phase chromatography of polar and ionic compounds, both small ones and biopolymers, e.g., oligonucleotides. We studied chromatographic properties of several stationary phases intended for separations in aqueous mobile phases: a C18 column end-capped with polar hydrophilic groups, a densely bonded C8 column doubly end-capped with short alkyl groups, a short alkyl stationary phase designed to keep full pore accessibility in highly-aqueous mobile phases and a Bidentate column with “bridged” C18 groups attached to the silica hydride support. The chemistry and pore structure of various types of column packing materials and of the salt additives to the mobile phase affect the proportion of the pore volume non-accessible to anions due to ion-exclusion and consequently the peak asymmetry and hydrophobic selectivity in reversed-phase chromatography of organic acids. We also addressed the problems connected with the determination of column hold-up volume in aqueous mobile phases. The accessibility of the stationary phase for anionic compounds in contact with the sample zone is affected by ion-exclusion due to repulsive interactions with the negatively charged surface in the pores of the stationary phase. The accessible part of the stationary phase increases and consequently the migration velocity along the column decreases with increasing concentration of the sample in the zone moving along the column. Because of a limited access to the stationary phase, its capacity can be easily overloaded. The combination of the column overload and ion-exclusion effects may result in fronting or tailing peak asymmetry. To explain this behaviour, we proposed a modified Langmuir model, respecting the variation of the column capacity due to the effects of sample concentration on ion-exclusion.     

Experimental evidence of the influence of the surface chemistry of the packing material on the column pressure drop in reverse-phase liquid chromatography

The permeabilities of six columns packed with different packing materials (neat silica, C(1) endcapped silica at 3.92 micro mol/m(2), C(18) bonded and endcapped silica with 0.42, 1.01, 2.03, and 3.15 micro mol/m(2) of C(18) bonded chains) were measured. All these materials derive from the same batch of spherical particles, 5 micro m in diameter. The columns have the same tube inner diameter (phi=0.460+/-0.003 cm) and length (L=15.000+/-0.003 cm). The experimental conditions were the same, flow-rate (F(v)=1.000+/-0.003 mL/min) and temperature (295 K). Nevertheless, it was found that the column permeability decreases significantly, by about 25%, from the neat silica column to the one packed with the highest density of C(18)-bonded silica (3.15 micro mol/m(2)). The results measured on two duplicate columns were very reproducible. Accurate (+/-0.5 %) measurements of the hold-volumes with concentrated and dilute solutions of NO(3)(-) showed that the columns had all nearly the same external porosity. The result cannot be explained by the error made on the volume of the column tube either as it was measured accurately for all the columns. The residual explanation is that the interstitial velocity distribution between the packed particles depends on the chemical nature of the external surface of these particles.     

等速电泳-高效液相色谱联用分离复杂样品的研究

将ＯＣＥＰ－１型等速电泳仪和Ｗａｔｅｒｓ高效液相色谱仪主要部件联用,配以自制的接口,建立高效液相色谱－等速电泳新联用系统,成功地研究了含蛋白质和一些金属离子的复杂样品的分离分析。     

Measurement of hold-up volumes in reverse-phase liquid chromatography Definition and comparison between static and dynamic methods

The hold-up volumes, V(M) of two series of RPLC adsorbents were measured using three different approaches. The first method is based on the difference between the volumes of the empty column tube (150x4.6mm) and of the material packed inside the column. It is considered as giving the correct value of V(M). This method combines the results of the BET characterization of the adsorbent before packing (giving the specific pore volume), of carbon element analysis (giving the mass fraction of silica and alkyl bonded chains), of Helium pycnometry (providing silica density), and of inverse size exclusion chromatography (ISEC) performed on the packed column (yielding the interparticle volume). The second method is static pycnometry, which consists in weighing the masses of the chromatographic column filled with two distinct solvents of different densities. The last method is based on the thermodynamic definition of the hold-up volume and uses the dynamic minor disturbance method (MDM) with binary eluents. The experimental results of these three non-destructive methods are compared. They exhibit significant, systematic differences. Pycnometry underestimates V(M) by a few percent for adsorbents having a high carbon content. The results of the MDM method depend strongly on the choice of the binary solution used and may underestimate or overestimate V(M). The hold-up volume V(M) of the RPLC adsorbents tested is best measured by the MDM method using a mixture of ethanol and water.     

A New Definition of the Stationary Phase Volume in Mixed-Mode Chromatographic Columns in Hydrophilic Liquid Chromatography

Polar columns used in the HILIC (Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography) systems take up water from the mixed aqueous–organic mobile phases in excess of the water concentration in the bulk mobile phase. The adsorbed water forms a diffuse layer, which becomes a part of the HILIC stationary phase and plays dominant role in the retention of polar compounds. It is difficult to fix the exact boundary between the diffuse stationary and the bulk mobile phase, hence determining the column hold-up volume is subject to errors. Adopting a convention that presumes that the volume of the adsorbed water can be understood as the column stationary phase volume enables unambiguous determination of the volumes of the stationary and of the mobile phases in the column, which is necessary for obtaining thermodynamically correct chromatographic data in HILIC systems. The volume of the aqueous stationary phase, Vex, can be determined experimentally by frontal analysis combined with Karl Fischer titration method, yielding isotherms of water adsorbed on polar columns, which allow direct prediction of the effects of the composition of aqueous–organic mobile phase on the retention in HILIC systems, and more accurate determination of phase volumes in columns and consistent retention data for any mobile phase composition. The n phase volume ratios of 18 columns calculated according to the new phase convention strongly depend on the type of the polar column. Zwitterionic and TSK gel amide and amine columns show especially strong water adsorption.     

Liquid chromatography at the critical condition: Thermodynamic significance and influence of pore size

Liquid chromatography at the critical condition (LCCC) is a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique that lies between size exclusion chromatography and adsorption-based interaction chromatography, where the elution of polymers becomes independent of polymer molecular weight. At LCCC, the balance between the entropic exclusion and the enthalpic adsorption interactions between polymers and stationary phases results in the simultaneous HPLC elution of polymers regardless of molecular weight. Using C18-bonded silica chromatographic columns with 5 μm particle size and different average pore size (diameter = 300 Å, 120 Å, 100 Å, and 50 Å), we report (1) the thermodynamic significance of LCCC conditions and (2) the influence of column pore size on the determination of critical conditions for linear polymer chains. Specifically, we used mixtures of monodisperse polystyrene samples ranging in molecular weight from 162 to 371,100 g/mol and controlled the temperature of the HPLC columns at a fixed composition of a mobile phase consisting of 57(v/v)% methylene chloride and 43(v/v)% acetonitrile. It was found that, at the fixed mobile phase composition, the temperature of LCCC (T_LCCC) is higher for C18-bonded chromatographic columns with larger average pore size. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 2533–2540, 2009     

Rapid separation of microcystins and nodularin using a monolithic silica C18 column

A monolithic C18-bonded silica rod column (Merck Chromolith) was compared to particle-based C18 and amide C16 sorbents in the HPLC separation of eight microcystins and nodularin-R. Two gradient mobile phases of aqueous trifluoroacetic acid modified with acetonitrile or methanol, different flow-rates and different gradient lengths were tested. The performance of the Chromolith column measured as the resolution of some microcystin pairs, the selectivity, efficiency (peak width) and peak asymmetry equalled, or exceeded, the performance of traditional particle-based columns. The Chromolith column allowed a shortening of the total analysis time to 4.3 min with a flow-rate 4 ml min(-1).     

Separation of Fatty Acids as Their p-Bromophenacyl Esters on a C30-Bonded Silica Column by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A new C₃₀-bonded silica column was developed for high performance liquid chromatography. This column was tested for the fractionation of fatty acids as their p-bromophenacyl esters by the reverse-phase mode. Certain pairs of fatty acid esters that are very difficult to separate on a C₁₈-bonded silica column, i. e., arachidonic (C₂₀:4)-palmitoleic (C₁₆:1); elaidic (trans C₁₈:1)-vaccinic (cis C₁₈:1); behenic (C₂₂:0)-nervonic (C₂₄:1); and arachidonic (C₂₀:0)-erucic (C₂₂:1) esters, were completely resolved on the C₃₀-bonded column using solvent gradients of acetonitrile: water and acetonitrile: p-dioxane. A solvent system of methylene chloride: acetonitrile (2:1, v/v) was developed for this column to achieve good separation of a homologous series of extremely nonpolar C₇₆ to C₈₂ α-mycolic acid esters from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra.