Capillary zone electrophoresis in methanol: migration behavior and background electrolytes

Nonaqueous (NA) solutions are often used as background electrolytes (BGEs) and NA solvents are added to aqueous BGEs as organic modifiers in capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE), in order to optimize the separations. This can be tricky, however, because the pH* and pK* concepts may be totally different in NA solvents, whereas often less knowledge is available concerning phenomena, such as system zones, applying NA solvents. In this paper, the concepts of pH* and pK* are considered for methanol as a solvent and pK* values are determined for several components in mixtures of water and methanol. With a mathematical model, adapted for calculations in methanol, parameters are calculated describing the fronting or tailing character of peaks and the question of peaks or dips, and the existence of system zones is discussed for pure methanol as a solvent. These aspects are experimentally verified, applying BGEs useful for the separation of cationic species in the indirect UV mode. It can be concluded that the mathematical model developed for aqueous BGEs is applicable to BGEs in methanol, too, and that the behavior of BGEs in methanol is comparable with that in water concerning the fronting or tailing character of peaks and the question of peaks and dips, although the mobilities and pK values can change significantly.     

Reversible pH-controlled switching of poly(methacrylic acid) grafts for functional biointerfaces

Responsive polymeric brushes of poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) were grafted from silicon surfaces using controlled surface-initiated atom-transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). The growth kinetics of PMAA was investigated with respect to the composition of the ATRP medium by grafting the polymer in mixtures of water and methanol with different ratios. The dissociation behavior of the polymer layers was characterized by FTIR titration after incubating the polymer-grafted substrates in PBS buffer solutions with different pH values. PMAA layers show a strong pH-dependent behavior with an effective pK(a) of the bulk polymer brush of 6.5 ± 0.2, which is independent of the polymer brush thickness and methanol content of the ATRP grafting medium. The pH-induced swelling and collapse of the grafted polymer layers were quantified in real time by in situ ellipsometry in liquid environment. Switching between polymer conformations at pH values of 4 and 8 is rapid and reversible, and it is characterized by swelling factors (maximum thickness/minimum thickness) that increase with decreasing the methanol content of the SI-ATRP medium.     

Acid-base equilibria in binary water/organic solvent systems Dissociation of citric acid in water/dioxan and water/methanol solvent systems at 25 degrees

The thermodynamic constants of citric acid were determined at 25 degrees in water/dioxan and water/methanol mixtures with 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% v/v organic co-solvent content. Simple relations allowing the calculation of palpha*(H) of citrate buffer solutions are proposed (alpha*(H) being the hydrogen-ion activity referred to the standard state in the corresponding medium). The palpha*(H) values of some citrate buffer solutions, suitable for standardization, are reported. The pK values obtained are discussed in relation to the nature and composition of the solvent, as well as the structure of the acid molecule.     

Solid phase extraction purification of carboxylic acid products from 96-well format solution phase synthesis with DOWEX 1x8-400 formate anion exchange resin

The anion exchange resin DOWEX 1x8-400 formate has been developed for the isolation or resin capture of carboxylic acids from solution phase reactions in a 96-well format using a batchwise solid phase extraction technique. Eleven different anion exchange resins (formate forms) were evaluated for their efficiency at scavenging aryl and aliphatic carboxylic acids from solution. The model carboxylic acids had pK(a)s ranging from 3.40 to 4.89. Exchange efficiency onto the resin was pK(a) dependent with the carboxylic acids but not with their diisopropylethylammonium salts. Exchange off of the resin also showed pK(a) dependence with the stronger acids requiring more concentrated solvent acid for exchange. DOWEX 1x8-400 formate was determined to have superior capacity and the fastest exchange rate. Solvents suitable for exchanging the acids onto the resin were CH2Cl2, methanol, and various solvent/water mixtures. Solvents suitable for exchanging the carboxylic acids off of the resin were TFA/solvent or HCO2H/solvent mixtures. The resin was found to swell best in CH2Cl2 and in polar protic solvents such as water, alcohols, and acids. Application of this technique to the crude product mixtures from an arrayed reductive amination and an arrayed Stille reaction provided product carboxylic acids in yields averaging 57% and purities averaging 89%.     

Protonation equilibria of quinolone antibacterials in acetonitrile-water mobile phases used in LC

Ionization constants of nine quinolone antibacterials in acetonitrile-water mixtures containing 0, 5.5, 10, 16.3, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 70% (w/w) acetonitrile were obtained and assignment of these pK values to the several potentially ionizable functional groups was made. The variation of the pK values obtained over the whole composition range studied can be explained by consideration of the preferential solvation of electrolytes in acetonitrile-water mixtures. In order to obtain pK values in any of the unlimited number of possible binary solvent acetonitrile-water mixtures, relationships between pK values and different bulk properties (such as dielectric constant) were examined. The linear solvation energy relationships method, LSER, was applied to study the correlation of pK values with the solvatochromic parameters of acetonitrile-water mixtures. The equations obtained allow calculation of the pK values of the quinolone antimicrobials in any acetonitrile-water mixtures up to 70% (w/w) and thus permit the knowledge of the acid-base behaviour of these important antimicrobials in the widely used acetonitrile-water media.     

The pK(a), values of the conjugate acid of imidazole in water-ethanol mixtures

The pK(a) values of protonated imidazole in 10 different water-ethanol mixtures were determined at 25 degrees by potentiometric titration in a cell without liquid junction (glass and silver-silver bromide electrodes). The pK(a) values can be used in a standardization procedure that allows determination of pK(a) values for protonated organic nitrogen bases in aqueous ethanol.     

Accurate prediction of absolute acidity constants in water with a polarizable force field: substituted phenols, methanol, and imidazole

Validity of a force field with explicit treatment of electrostatic polarization in a form of inducible point dipoles for computing acidity constants was tested by calculating absolute pK(a) values of substituted phenols, methanol, and imidazole in water with the molecular dynamics technique. The last two systems were selected as tyrosine and histidine side-chain analogues, respectively. The solvent was represented by an explicit polarizable water model. Similar calculations were also performed with a modified OPLS-AA nonpolarizable force field. The resulting pK(a) values were compared with available experimental data. While the nonpolarizable force field yields errors of about 5 units in the absolute pK(a) values for the phenols and methanol, the polarizable force field produces the acidity constant values within a ca. 0.8 units accuracy. For the case of imidazole, the fixed-charges force field was capable of reproducing the experimental value of pK(a) (6.4 versus the experimental 7.0 units), but only at a cost of dramatically underestimating dimerization energy for the imidazolium-water complex. At the same time, the polarizable force field yields an even more accurate result of pK(a) = 6.96 without any sacrifice of the accuracy in the dimerization energy. It has also been demonstrated that application of Ewald summation for the long-range electrostatics is important, and substitution of a simple cutoff procedure with Born correction for ions can lead to underestimation of absolute pK(a) values by more than 5 units. The accuracy of the absolute acidity constants computed with the polarizable force field is very encouraging and opens road for further tests on more diverse organic molecules sets, as well as on proteins.     

Peptide separations and dissociation constants in nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis: comparison of methanol and aqueous buffers

Nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis was evaluated for its potential to separate peptides in methanolic background electrolytes in comparison to aqueous-methanol (50% v/v) and water. Isomeric aspartyl dipeptides and Leu- and Met-enkephalin served as model compounds. pK(a) values were determined in the three solvent systems based on the apparent pH scale and in the case of methanol additionally based on the conventional pH scale. Changing from water to methanol led to an increase of the ionization constants describing the dissociation equilibria of the carboxyl group and the amino group, respectively. The pK(a) shift was more pronounced for the carboxylic acid function leading to a compression of the mobility-pH curve. As reported for aqueous buffers, efficient separations of the peptides were achieved in methanolic background electrolytes including the resolution of the diastereomers of the isomeric alpha- and beta-aspartyl dipeptides. In contrast to aqueous buffers, the separation of Leu- and Met-enkephalin could also be obtained in buffers in methanol at high pH.     

Critical validation of a new simpler approach to estimate aqueous pKa of drugs sparingly soluble in water

A simple linear approach to estimate the aqueous pK_a of compounds sparingly soluble in water, mainly drugs, from solely one pK_a value determined in any methanol/water mixture is evaluated. The parameters (slope and intercept) of the linear relationships are related to the solvent composition and can be easily calculated according to the acidic or basic functional group of the compound. The method has been tested using the available literature data for phenols, aliphatic carboxylic acids, benzoic acid derivatives, both ortho and non-ortho substituted, amines and imidazole derivatives. The study involves the whole range of solvent composition and about one hundred compounds which show a wide variety of aqueous pK_a, from 1.3 to 12.4. The differences between calculated and previously published aqueous pK_a values are less of 0.2 pK units. Consistent values are obtained whatever the composition of methanol/water mixture employed in the experimental measurements. The results support the usefulness of the tested method as a very simple approach to get reliable aqueous pK_a values for sparingly soluble drugs.     

An accurate density functional theory based estimation of pK(a) values of polar residues combined with experimental data: from amino acids to minimal proteins

We report a scheme for estimating the acid dissociation constant (pK(a)) based on quantum-chemical calculations combined with a polarizable continuum model, where a parameter is determined for small reference molecules. We calculated the pK(a) values of variously sized molecules ranging from an amino acid to a protein consisting of 300 atoms. This scheme enabled us to derive a semiquantitative pK(a) value of specific chemical groups and discuss the influence of the surroundings on the pK(a) values. As applications, we have derived the pK(a) value of the side chain of an amino acid and almost reproduced the experimental value. By using our computing schemes, we showed the influence of hydrogen bonds on the pK(a) values in the case of tripeptides, which decreases the pK(a) value by 3.0 units for serine in comparison with those of the corresponding monopeptides. Finally, with some assumptions, we derived the pK(a) values of tyrosines and serines in chignolin and a tryptophan cage. We obtained quite different pK(a) values of adjacent serines in the tryptophan cage; the pK(a) value of the OH group of Ser13 exposed to bulk water is 14.69, whereas that of Ser14 not exposed to bulk water is 20.80 because of the internal hydrogen bonds.     

Application of the Bahe's pseudolattice theory to water-1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bmimBF4) mixtures at 298.15K: Part II. Acidity scales

Molten salts at room temperature and their mixtures with water or molecular solvents are excellent candidates for future replacement of most of organic solvents used in many industrial processes. To make this possible and to allow efficient application, it is necessary to determine physico-chemical parameters (such as the acidity scales) for these reaction media. This work follows a study of the autoprotolysis constants (K(s)) of water-1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (bmimBF(4)) mixtures at 298.15K over the composition range of 0-77.43 vol.% bmimBF(4) [I. Bou Malham, P. Letellier, M. Turmine, Talanta 72 (2007) 155-164]. In this second analysis, we determined the values of the dissociation constant (pK(a)) of various conjugate acid-base pairs for the same water-bmimBF(4) mixtures, to establish acidity scales for each medium. These data can be used to produce proton buffer solutions and thus to control the acidity level of water-ionic liquid (IL) mixtures. We compare the values of pK(a) for acid-base pairs in water-bmimBF(4) mixtures with published values for water-methanol mixtures.     

Selective adsorption from methanol/water mixtures by C60 fullerene nanospheres

Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the selective adsorption of methanol/water mixtures on the surface of [60] fullerene nanospheres. C₆₀ molecules were dispersed in methanol/water mixtures with different methanol molar fractions ranging between 1 and 0.5. The Raman active pentagon pinch mode shifted significantly (±4 cm⁻¹) as the mixture composition was changed. The shift in the Raman mode was sinusoidal in nature indicating that methanol then water is adsorbed preferentially on the fullerene surface at different mixture compositions. The observed behavior is attributed to structure forming effects of alcohol/water mixtures and the shape and size effect of fullerene surface.     

On the role of solvent in acid-base equilibria of diuretics in acetonitrile-water mixed solvents

The dissociation constants of representative loop (furosemide), thiazide (chlorthiazide and trichlormethiazide) and potassium sparing (amiloride) diuretics in 10, 30, 40, 50 and 70% (w/w) acetonitrile-water mixtures at 298.15 K were determined, in accordance with IUPAC procedures. The variation in pK(a) values over the whole composition range can be explained by preferential solvation and the structural features in acetonitrile-water mixtures. Correlations between pK(a) values and various bulk and solvatochromic properties of the solvents were calculated. The linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) method was applied. The resulting equations allowed us to calculate pK(a) values for the diuretics studied in any acetonitrile-water mixture up to 70% (w/w) and should help to clarify the acid-base behaviour of diuretics in the widely-used acetonitrile-water mixed solvents.     

Capillary electrophoresis in mixed aqueous-organic solvents: effect of aprotic dipolar N,N-dimethylformamide and N,N-dimethylacetamide on acidity constants of substituted aromatic acids

The change in the pKa values of substituted benzoic acids in binary mixtures of water with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA), respectively, was determined up to a concentration of 80% (vol/vol) organic cosolvent. Such solvents are applied as media of the background electrolyte in capillary electrophoresis, with the intention of increasing the analyte solubility and the separation selectivity. The pKa values increase nonlinearly with increasing DMF and DMA concentration, and reach values between 2.5 and 3.7 pK units higher than in water at 80% organic solvent content. This change is discussed based on the concept of the medium effect, taking into account the particular stabilization of the species involved in the protolysis equilibria of the acids: HA, A-, and H+, in the different solvents. The contribution of the medium effect of the individual neutral acid HA on the delta pKa values is determined by solubility measurements. The increase in the delta pKa values, averaged for all five acids investigated, is compared in different mixed aqueous-organic media, consisting of methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, acetonitrile, DMF, and DMA, respectively. The comparison is based on the third-order polynomial fit of the delta pKa versus organic solvent concentration data. It is found that, in this respect, acetonitrile resembles the lower alcohols, and is dissimilar to the other dipolar, aprotic solvents, DMF and DMA. The similarity of the solvent systems is depicted by cluster analysis.     

Effect of Alcohols on the Photooxidative Behavior of Diethyl Sulfide

The reactions of singlet oxygen with diethyl sulfide (Et(2)S) in benzene alcohol mixtures have been examined. The salient discoveries include: (1) the rate constants of product formation, k(r), in benzene/methanol mixtures are a function of the concentration of methanol, (2) the ability of alcohols to supress physical quenching are a function of their pK(a)'s, and (3) trapping experiments with diphenyl sulfoxide are consistent with two distinct intermediates. A mechanism which involves formation of a persulfoxide followed by reaction with methanol to give a hydroperoxy-methoxy sulfurane is consistent with all of the results.     

A simple method for the titration of multicomponent acid-base mixtures

A titration method has been developed to analyze acid mixtures, in which the pK values differed by 0.5 to 1 pH units. Instead of the use of equivalence points a buffer capacity curve is numerically derived from the titration curve resulting in a presentation similar to chromatograms and spectra. The consumption of the NaOH titrant is determined within pH intervals of 0.2-0.6 units around the pK values of the components. The buffer capacity measured is expressed as the consumption of NaOH over the pH interval. The amounts of compounds are found from these results using simple models of chemometrics. The method has been applied to a mixture of formic and acetic acids with concentrations of 0-3 mmol/20 ml with an error of 0-0.05 mmol. Furthermore a curve-fitting method based on a theoretical equation of buffer capacity can be applied with an error slightly larger than with the previous method. In this case, the pK values were also computed. For titrations beyond the pH range 4-10, the buffer capacity of water has to be subtracted from the titration results. The whole procedure requires including the computations about 3-6 min.     

Clustering dynamics in water/methanol mixtures: a nuclear magnetic resonance study at 205 k<T<295 k

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) experiments have been performed to measure the spin-lattice, T1, and spin-spin, T2, relaxation times of the three functional groups in water/methanol mixtures at different methanol molar fractions (XMeOH=0, 0.04, 0.1, 0.24, 0.5, 1) as a function of temperature in the range 205 K相似文献   

Determination of acid-base dissociation constants of azahelicenes by capillary zone electrophoresis

CZE was employed to determine acid-base dissociation constants (pK(a)) of ionogenic groups of azahelicenes in methanol (MeOH). Azahelicenes are unique 3-D aromatic systems, which consist of ortho-fused benzene/pyridine units and exhibit helical chirality. The pK(a) values of pyridinium groups of the studied azahelicenes were determined from the dependence of their effective electrophoretic mobility on pH by a nonlinear regression analysis. The effective mobilities of azahelicenes were determined by CZE at pH range between 2.1 and 10.5. Thermodynamic pK(a) values of monobasic 1-aza[6]helicene and 2-aza[6]helicene in MeOH were determined to be 4.94 +/- 0.05 and 5.68 +/- 0.05, respectively, and pK(a) values of dibasic 1,14-diaza[5]helicene were found to be equal to 7.56 +/- 0.38 and 8.85 +/- 0.26. From these values, the aqueous pK(a) of these compounds was estimated.     

Potentiometric determination of the dissociation constants of L-histidine, proline and tryptophane in various hydroorganic media

The dissociation constant values of L-histidine, proline and tryptophane were determined at 25 +/- 0.1 degrees C by potentiometric pH titration in pure water and different hydroorganic solvent media. The organic solvents used were methanol, ethanol, N,N-dimethylformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, acetone and dioxane. Initial estimates of the dissociation constant values of the different amino acids studied have been refined with ESAP2M computer program. It was observed that changing the medium permittivity as the solvent is enriched in methanol or ethanol has little influence on the pK*(a) values of the amino acids studied. The results obtained are discussed in terms of average macroscopic properties of the mixed solvents and the possible variation in microheterogeneity of the salvation shells around the solute.     

Determination of chromatographic dissociation constants of some carbapenem group antibiotics and quantification of these compounds in human urine

The dissociation constant values (_s^spK_a) of some carbapenem group drugs (ertapenem, meropenem, doripenem) in different percentages of methanol–water binary mixtures (18, 20 and 22%, v/v) were determined from the mobile phase pH dependence of their retention factor. Evaluation of these data was performed using the NLREG program. From calculated pK_a values, the aqueous pK_a values of these subtances were calculated by different approaches. Moreover, the correlation established between retention factor and the pH of the water–methanol mobile phase was used to determine the optimum separation conditions. In order to validate the optimized conditions, these drugs were studied in human urine. The chromatographic separation was realized using a Gemini NX C₁₈ column (250 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 µm particles) and UV detector set at 220 and 295 nm. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.