Microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography – or solvent-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography?

An overview of the microemulsion electrokinetic chromatography technique and its fields of applications in analytical chemistry are given. The separation mechanisms involved are discussed and the technique is compared to solvent-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography.     

Gas chromatography — evolution and revolution

The development of gas chromatography since its inception is briefly traced, current demands of users are outlined and the present situation and future prospects are considered using the latest instrumentation as an example.     

Supercritical-fluid chromatography — prospects and problems

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in supercritical-fluid chromatography (SFC) as an alternative technique for the rapid and efficient separation of non-voltatile or thermally labile compounds. In this contribution the potential of SFC is investigated, the current status of instrumentation is reviewed and areas for further research are identified.     

Support-free pulsed liquid–liquid chromatography

A simple technique of support-free liquid–liquid chromatography is suggested that operates without incorporation of a centrifuge. The pulsed chromatography apparatus consists of a stationary coiled tube and a pulsation device to produce reciprocating motion of liquid phases within each individual coil segment. This reciprocating motion generates a centrifugal force field varying in intensity and direction that leads to an improved mixing of the two liquid phases and retains the stationary phase in the coiled tubing. The intensity of the back and forth motion of liquid phases within each coil unit can be varied by varying the frequency and/or the amplitude of the pulsations generated by the pulsation device. As the magnitude of the stationary phase retention is of paramount importance for success of the technique, the retention of the stationary phase in the pulsed coil column was experimentally studied. A few experiments were conducted to test the chromatographic behavior of valeric (n-pentanoic) and caproic (n-hexanoic) acids. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of the new separation method for preparative purposes.     

Fractionation of selenium-containing proteins in serum by multiaffinity liquid chromatography before size-exclusion chromatography–ICPMS

Immunoaffinity chromatography has been investigated for fractionation of serum into selenoalbumin and true selenoproteins. Among several albumin-depletion kits tested, a multiaffinity column specifically binding albumin and five other major serum proteins provided the best results. It extracted ca 95% of both albumin and selenoalbumin, which enabled interference-free determination of glutathione peroxidase, selenoprotein P, and selenoalbumin by size-exclusion chromatography combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SEC–ICPMS). The efficiency of the multiaffinity column did not vary over a period of 18 months. The purity of fractions separated by immunoaffinity LC was confirmed by elution-volume matching with standards in SEC–ICPMS and by selenopeptide mapping in capillary HPLC–ICPMS. Quantification of the selenium distribution among the different proteins in human serum from a control group and from a person on a selenium-rich diet revealed that 67% of the supplemented selenium was incorporated into albumin, 30% into glutathione peroxidase, and 3% into selenoprotein P.     

Elucidation of n-butyl benzyl phthalate biodegradation using high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

n-Butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) is an endocrine-disrupting chemical. A bacterium species capable of using BBP as the sole source of carbon and energy was isolated from mangrove sediment. Effects of BBP concentration, pH, temperature, and salinity on BBP biodegradation were studied. The optimum pH, temperature, and salinity for the BBP biodegradation were 7.0, 37°C, and 15 g L⁻¹, respectively. BBP was completely degraded within 6 days under optimum conditions, and the biodegradation of BBP could be fitted to a first-order kinetic model. The major metabolites of BBP biodegradation were identified as mono-butyl phthalate, mono-benzyl phthalate, phthalic acid, and benzoic acid by using high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. A preliminary metabolic pathway was proposed for the biodegradation of BBP.      

Size-exclusion chromatography—from high-performance to ultra-performance

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) enables measurement of the average molecular weights and molecular-weight distributions of polymers. Because these characteristics may, in turn, be correlated with important performance characteristics of plastics, SEC is an essential analytical technique for characterization of macromolecules. Although SEC is one of the oldest instrumental chromatographic techniques, it is still under continuous development, as a result of the great demand for increased resolution and faster analysis in SEC. Ultra-high-pressure size-exclusion chromatography (UHPSEC) was recently introduced to satisfy the growing demands of analytical chemists. Using instrumentation capable of generating very high pressures and columns packed with small particles, this technique enables greater separation efficiency and faster analysis than are achieved with conventional SEC. UHPSEC is especially advantageous for high-resolution analysis of oligomers, for very rapid polymer separations, and as a second dimension in comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography of polymers. In this paper we discuss the benefits of UHPSEC for separation of macromolecules, with examples from the literature.     

Supercritical fluid chromatography—mass spectrometry coupling

Over the past five years, an increasing number of studies have been published on supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and combined supercritical fluid chromatography—mass spectrometry (SFC—MS), demonstrating their advantages for the separation and analysis of non-volatile or thermally labile compounds. Further technological developments are expected to make SFC (and specially SFC—MS) a puissant, routine analytical tool that is complementary to gas chromatography (GC) (and GC—MS) and liquid chromatography (LC) (and LC—MS). Because of supercritical fluid properties, SFC—MS may be more easily implemented than LC—MS and better performance may be obtained for some types of substances or when complex mixtures must be analysed.     

Detailed study of polystyrene solubility using pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and combination with size-exclusion chromatography

Measuring polymer solubility accurately and precisely is challenging. This is especially true at unfavourable solvent compositions, when only very small amounts of polymer dissolve. In this paper, pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) is demonstrated to be much more informative and sensitive than conventional methods, such as ultraviolet spectroscopy. By using a programmed-temperature-vapourisation injector as the pyrolysis chamber, we demonstrate that Py-GC-MS can cover up to five orders of magnitude in dissolved polymer concentrations. For polystyrene, a detection limit of 1 ng mL^?1 is attained. Dissolution in poor solvents is demonstrated to be discriminating in terms of the analyte molecular weight. Py-GC-MS additionally can yield information on polymer composition (e.g. in case of copolymers). In combination with size-exclusion chromatography, Py-GC-MS allows us to estimate the molecular weight distributions of minute amounts of a dissolved polymer and variations therein as a function of time.

IMAC—Immobilized metal ion affinity based chromatography

Immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC) is a highly versatile separation method based on interfacial interactions between biopolymers in solution and metal ions fixed to a solid support, which is usually a hydrophilic cross-linked polymer.Polymer-fixed Zn(II), Ni(II), Co(II) and Cu(II) are particularly well suited for fractionation of proteins primarily on the basis of their relative content of surface-located imidazole residues but also of Trp and Cys residues as well as terminal amino groups.IMA methods can also be devised for purification of phosphoproteins and calcium-binding proteins. In some instances, the performance of IMA gels is comparable to that of biospecific affinity-based adsorbents. In fact IMA gels may, by sandwich techniques, occasionally be converted to biospecific adsorbents.Selectivity can be varied by choice of type of ligand and metal ion as well as by varying the modes of elution, including affinity desorption.     

Are axial and radial flow chromatography different?

Radial flow chromatography can be a solution for scaling up a packed bed chromatographic process to larger processing volumes. In this study we compared axial and radial flow affinity chromatography both experimentally and theoretically. We used an axial flow column and a miniaturized radial flow column with a ratio of 1.8 between outer and inner surface area, both with a bed height of 5 cm. The columns were packed with affinity resin to adsorb BSA. The average velocity in the columns was set equal. No difference in performance between the two columns could be observed. To gain more insight into the design of a radial flow column, the velocity profile and resin distribution in the radial flow column were calculated. Using mathematical models we found that the breakthrough performance of radial flow chromatography is very similar to axial flow when the ratio between outer and inner radius of the radial flow column is around 2. When this ratio is increased, differences become more apparent, but remain small. However, the ratio does have a significant influence on the velocity profile inside the resin bed, which directly influences the pressure drop and potentially resin compression, especially at higher values for this ratio. The choice between axial and radial flow will be based on cost price, footprint and packing characteristics. For small-scale processes, axial flow chromatography is probably the best choice, for resin volumes of at least several tens of litres, radial flow chromatography may be preferable.     

Two-dimensional turbulent flow chromatography coupled on-line to liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry for solution-based ligand screening against multiple proteins

We present herein a novel bioseparation/chemical analysis strategy for protein–ligand screening and affinity ranking in compound mixtures, designed to increase screening rates and improve sensitivity and ruggedness in performance. The strategy is carried out by combining on-line two-dimensional turbulent flow chromatography (2D-TFC) with liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), and accomplished through the following steps: (1) a reversed-phase TFC stage to separate the protein/ligand complex from the unbound free molecules, (2) an on-line dissociation process to release the bound ligands from the complexes, and (3) a second mixed-mode cation-exchange/reversed-phase TFC stage to trap the bound ligands and to remove the proteins and salts, followed by LC–MS analysis for identification and determination of the binding affinities. The technique can implement an ultra-fast isolation of protein/ligand complex with the retention time of a complex peak in about 5 s, and on-line prepare the “clean” sample to be directly compatible with the LC–MS analysis. The improvement in performance of this 2D-TFC/LC–MS approach over the conventional approach has been demonstrated by determining affinity-selected ligands of the target proteins acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase from a small library with known binding affinities and a steroidal alkaloid library composed of structurally similar compounds. Our results show that 2D-TFC/LC–MS is a generic and efficient tool for high-throughput screening of ligands with low-to-high binding affinities, and structure-activity relationship evaluation.     

Csaba Horváth and preparative liquid chromatography

Few chromatographers have been interested in furthering preparative liquid chromatography. The pioneers, Tswett, Kuhn and Lederer, A.J.P. Martin, Tiselius, isolated fractions but as an intermediate step in the analysis of their samples. The progress in electronics and sensors, and in their miniaturization has lead to the paradoxical situation that the analysts never see the transient pure fractions that their detector quantitates. Yet, over the last 25 years, preparative liquid chromatography has become an important industrial process for the separation, the extraction, and/or the purification of many pharmaceuticals or pharmaceutical intermediates, including pure enantiomers, purified peptides and proteins, compounds that are manufactured at the relatively large industrial scale of a few kilograms to several hundred tons per year. This development that has strongly affected the modem pharmaceutical industry is mainly due to the pioneering work of Csaba Horváth. His work in preparative HPLC was critical at both the practical and the theoretical levels. He was the first scientist in modem times to pay serious attention to the relationships between the curvature of the equilibrium isotherms, the competitive nature of nonlinear isotherms, and the chromatographic band profiles of complex mixtures. The thermodynamics of multi-component phase equilibria and mass transfer kinetics in chromatography attracted his interest and were the focus of ground-breaking contributions. He investigated displacement chromatography, an old method invented by Tiselius that Csaba was first to implement in HPLC. This choice was explained by the essential characteristic of displacement chromatography, in that it delivers fractions that can be far more concentrated than the feed. Remarkably, once the basics of nonlinear chromatography had been mastered in his group, most of the applications that were studied by his coworkers dealt with peptides of various sizes and with proteins. Thus, all the applications of preparative HPLC in the biotechnologies derive directly from Csaba's work. Although displacement did not pan out as a general method, the reasons are related more to practical constraints of the production of pharmaceuticals and to the long period of cheap energy that might be ending now. This report reviews Csaba's work in nonlinear chromatography.     

Biennial review of planar chromatography: 2011–2013

The most important advances in planar chromatography published between November 1, 2011 and November 1, 2013 are reviewed in this paper. Included are an introduction to the current status of the field; student experiments, books, and reviews; theory and fundamental studies; apparatus and techniques for sample preparation and TLC separations (sample application and plate development with the mobile phase); detection and identification of separated zones (chemical and biological detection, TLC/mass spectrometry, and TLC coupled with other spectrometric methods); techniques and instruments for quantitative analysis; preparative layer chromatography; and thin layer radiochromatography. Numerous applications to a great number of compound types and sample matrices are presented in all sections of the review.     

Is hydrophilic interaction chromatography with silica columns a viable alternative to reversed-phase liquid chromatography for the analysis of ionisable compounds?

The separation of acidic, neutral and particularly basic solutes was investigated using a bare silica column, mostly under hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) conditions with water concentrations >2.5% and with >70% acetonitrile (ACN). Profound changes in selectivity could be obtained by judicious selection of the buffer and its pH. Acidic solutes had low retention or showed exclusion in ammonium formate buffers, but were strongly retained when using trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) buffers, possibly due to suppression of repulsion of the solute anions from ionised silanol groups at the low (s)(s)pH of TFA solutions of aqueous ACN. At high buffer pH, the ionisation of weak bases was suppressed, reducing ionic (and possibly hydrophilic retention) leading to further opportunities for manipulation of selectivity. Peak shapes of basic solutes were excellent in ammonium formate buffers, and overloading effects, which are a major problem for charged bases in RPLC, were relatively insignificant in analytical separations using this buffer. HILIC separations were ideal for fast analysis of ionised bases, due to the low viscosity of mobile phases with high ACN content, and the favourable Van Deemter curves which resulted from higher solute diffusivities.