Effect of ionic liquid additives to mobile phase on separation and system efficiency for HPLC of selected alkaloids on different stationary phases

The silica-based stationary phases with favorable physical characteristics are the most popular in liquid chromatography. However, there are several problems with silica-based materials: severe peak tailing in the chromatography of basic compounds, non-reproducibility for the same chemistry columns, and limited pH stability. Ionic liquids (ILs) as mobile phase components can reduce peak tailing by masking residual free silanol groups. The chromatographic behavior of some alkaloids from different classes was studied on C18, phenyl, and pentafluorophenyl columns with different kinds and concentrations of ionic liquids as additives to aqueous mobile phases. Ionic liquids with different alkyl substituents on different cations or with different counterions as eluent additives were investigated. The addition of ionic liquids has great effects on the separation of alkaloids: decrease in band tailing, increase in system efficiency, and improved resolution. The retention, separation selectivity, and sequence of alkaloid elution were different when using eluents containing various ILs. The increase of IL concentration caused an increase in silanol blocking, thus conducted to decrease the interaction between alkaloid cations and free silanol groups, and caused a decrease of alkaloids retention, improvement of peak symmetry, and increase of theoretical plate number in most cases. The effect of ILs on stationary phases with different properties was also examined. The different properties of stationary phases resulted in differences in analyte retention, separation selectivity, peak shape, and system efficiency. The best shape of peaks and the highest theoretical plate number for most investigated alkaloids in mobile phases containing IL was obtained on pentafluorophenyl (PFP) phase.     

A Review of Ionic Liquids in Chromatographic and Electromigration Techniques

Although there have been numerous studies on the use of ionic liquids (IL) as solvents for synthesis and catalysis, there are many potential new fields for their application. The number of studies dealing with the use of ILs as additives to the mobile phase in LC and CZE and as a stationary phases in GC is constantly increasing. The main goal of the present paper is to gather together studies concerning the use of ILs in chromatographic techniques. The application of these substances as stationary phases, mobile phase additives and electroosmotic flow modifiers is discussed. Conversely, the application of separation methods in the analysis of ILs is also the subject of this review.     

Utility of ionic liquids in analytical separations

Ionic liquids (ILs), as separation media, have made significant contributions in the past decades in advancing research in gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), and capillary electrophoresis (CE). This review, covering reports published from the mid 1980s to early 2007, shows how ILs have been used so far in separation science, originally primarily as GC stationary phases and later as mobile phase additives (both millimolar and major percent levels) for LC and CE. Representative GC and LC chromatograms as well as CE electropherograms are shown. In addition, the very recent findings on the development of ionic liquids with surfactant properties and its applications for chiral and achiral analysis are discussed.     

Simultaneous determination of fangchinoline and tetrandrine in Stephania tetrandra S. Moore by using 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids as the RP-HPLC mobile phase additives

A reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method for simultaneous determination of fangchinoline (FAN) and tetrandrine (TET) in Stephania tetrandra S. Moore was established by using 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate as the mobile phase additives in this paper. Four types of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) were used as additives of the mobile phase to separate FAN and TET by RP-HPLC. The effects of the length of the alkyl group on the imidazolium ring and its counterion, the concentrations of IL and the pH of the mobile phase, which influenced the chromatographic behaviors of FAN and TET, were investigated in detail. The linearity, sensitivity, accuracy and repeatability of the proposed method were also investigated. The probable mechanism of the separation with ILs as the mobile phase additives was explored and discussed.     

Nonaqueous CE using contactless conductivity detection and ionic liquids as BGEs in ACN

N,N'-Alkylmethylimidazolium cations have been separated in NACE when one of the N,N'-dialkylimidazolium salts (ionic liquids (ILs)) was used as an electrolyte additive to the organic solvent separation medium. The separated species were 1-methyl-, 1-ethyl-, 1-butyl-, 1-octyl-, 1-decyl-3-methylimidazolium and N-butyl-3-methylpyridinium cations and BGE composed of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate or 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoroacetate [BMIm][FAcO] (A6; B2) diluted in ACN. It was demonstrated that contactless conductivity detection (CCD) may be applied to monitoring the separation process in nonaqueous separation media, allowing to use the UV light-absorbing imidazolium-based electrolyte additives. There could be marked three concentration regions of added ILs; at first ionic strength of BGE below 1-2 mM, and then the actual electrophoretic mobility of analytes rises from 0. At concentrations above 1-2 mM, the added IL facilitated separation. In concentration region of 1-20 mM, the actual electrophoretic mobility of analyzed imidazolium cations was increasing with decrease in separation medium ionic strength. At higher concentrations of BGE (above 30 mM), the conductivity of the separation media became too high for this detector. Some organic dyes were also successfully separated and detected by contactless conductivity detector in a 20 mM A6 separation electrolyte in ACN.     

Reversed-phase liquid chromatographic separation of antiretroviral drugs on a monolithic column using ionic liquids as mobile phase additives

The use of 3-methylimidazolium cation-based ionic liquids (ILs) was evaluated as mobile phase additives for separation of antiretroviral drugs on a monolithic column by RP-HPLC. Separation of eight commonly used antiretroviral drugs was achieved on a Chromolith Flash, RP-18e column (25 × 4.6 mm, porous material) using water (pH 4.0 adjusted with acetic acid)/methanol v/v as a mobile phase containing ILs in a gradient elution mode. The effects of concentrations of ILs on retention, resolution and peak shape were studied and a regression equation correlating the interactions between stationary phase and the ILs was established. The retention of all the drugs was decreased notably by using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, while 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate reduced gradient drift drastically when compared to triethylamine.     

Ionic liquids as mobile phase additives for determination of thiocyanate and iodide by liquid chromatography

An analytical method was developed for the simultaneous determination of thiocyanate and iodide by reversed‐phase liquid chromatography with UV detection using imidazolium ionic liquids as mobile phase additives. The chromatographic behaviors of the two anions on a C₁₈ column were studied and compared with four types of reagents including imidazolium ionic liquids, pyridinium ionic liquids, 4‐aminophenol hydrochloride and tetrabutylammonium as mobile phase additives. The effects of the concentrations of imidazolium ionic liquids, organic solvents and detection wavelength on separation and detection of the anions were investigated. The role of ionic liquids, retention rules and mechanisms were discussed. The separation of the anions was performed on the C₁₈ reserved‐phase column using acetonitrile‐0.3 mmol/L 1‐amyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (10:90, v/v) as mobile phase, with column temperature of 35°C, flow rate of 1 mL/min and detection wavelength of 210 nm. Under these conditions, the two anions can be completely separated within 6 min. The limits of detection were 0.05 mg/L. The method was applied for the determination of thiocyanate and iodide in ionic liquid samples and iodide drugs, and the spiked recoveries ranged from 97 to 101%. The method is simple, accurate and meets the requirements of quantitative analysis for thiocyanate and iodide.     

离子液与蛋白质和核酸相互作用的研究

离子液因其具有良好的生物兼容性和独特的理化性质,近年来在生物催化和生物大分子蛋白质与核酸的分离分析领域得到广泛应用。离子液与生物大分子相互作用的研究是离子液相关理论与应用研究的基础,有关离子液与蛋白质和核酸相互作用的机理研究受到关注。本文简要介绍了常用离子液的分类,离子液与蛋白质分子作用的机理,离子液与核酸分子作用的机理,以及离子液在酶催化反应、生物分子分离、生物分子电化学分析和毛细管电泳分析中的应用,并主要综述了近年的相关研究和应用进展。     

On the use of ionic liquids as mobile phase additives in high-performance liquid chromatography. A review

The popularity of ionic liquids (ILs) has grown during the last decades in several analytical separation techniques. Consequently, the number of reports devoted to the applications of ILs is still increasing. This review is focused on the use of ILs (mainly imidazolium-based associated to chloride and tetrafluoroborate) as mobile phase additives in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In this approach, ILs just function as salts, but keep several kinds of intermolecular interactions, which are useful for chromatographic separations. Both cation and anion can be adsorbed on the stationary phase, creating a bilayer. This gives rise to hydrophobic, electrostatic and other specific interactions with the stationary phase and solutes, which modify the retention behaviour and peak shape. This review updates the advances in this field, with emphasis on topics not always deeply considered in the literature, such as the mechanisms of retention, the estimation of the suppressing potency of silanols, modelling and optimisation of the chromatographic performance, and the comparison with other additives traditionally used to avoid the silanol problem.     

Simultaneous separation of basic and acidic proteins using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ion liquid as dynamic coating and background electrolyte in capillary electrophoresis

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquids (1B-3MI-TFB ILs) were employed as a coating material and BGE in CE for simultaneous separation of basic and acidic proteins such as lysozyme, cytochrome C, ribonuclease A, albumin, and alpha-lactalbumin. 1B-3MI-TFB ILs effectively reversed the surface charges on the capillary inner surface, preventing the adsorption of positively charged proteins onto the silica surface, as well as associated with proteins, thus benefiting the separation efficiencies and reproducibility. Consequently, simultaneous baseline separation of five proteins was achieved within 14 min by using 10 mM of 1B-3MI-TFB ILs as dynamic coating and the only running electrolyte at the voltage of +20 kV. The proposed coating technique is simple, less time-consuming, reproducible, and also stable enough for proteins separation without the need of additives. Symmetrical peaks with efficiencies up to 670,000 plates/m were obtained. Recoveries of proteins with RSD (for migration times) of 0.23-0.42% (run-to-run) and 2.5-3.8% (day-to-day) were achieved, respectively. The applicability of the proposed method in proteins separation was evaluated by the separation of egg white samples.     

离子液体在CO_2捕集中的应用进展

离子液体具有蒸汽压极低、热稳定性好、热容低和可以根据目标需求进行设计等特性,能克服传统CO2捕集工艺的诸多不足,因而成为目前CO2捕集溶剂的研究热点。本文主要综述了普通离子液体、功能化离子液体、支撑型离子液体膜、聚合型离子液体和离子液体复配溶液在CO2捕集方面的应用研究进展,评述了各种方法的优势和缺点,并在此基础上提出...     

Impact of ionic liquids on silver thermoplastic polyurethane composite membranes for propane/propylene separation

This work describes newly synthesized composite polymeric membranes and their utilization in propane/propylene separation in a gas mixture. The nonporous composite polymers were successfully synthesized by using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and several silver salts/silver salts with ionic liquids (ILs). Our studies showed that silver bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (Ag[Tf₂N]) containing membranes outperformed other silver salt containing membranes in terms of selectivity. In addition, to this finding, ILs, as additives for the membranes, enhanced the selectivity by facilitating improved coordination of the olefin with the silver ions in the dense composite polymers.     

Effect of solvated ionic liquids on the ion conducting property of composite membranes for lithium ion batteries

We prepared the polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based composite membrane electrolytes which contained the specialized ionic liquids and the inorganic filler of Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO). Mixtures of ionic liquids and tetragonal inorganic fillers were used as additives to prepare composite electrolytes for an application of all solid-state lithium ion batteries (ASLBs). In order to improve the ionic conductivity of composite membranes, we studied the structural change and the electrochemical behaviors as a function of the amounts of solvated ionic liquids (ILs). The addition effect of solvated ILs showed the higher ionic conductivity such as 10^?4 S/cm at 55 °C by reducing the crystalline character of polymer based composite, resulting in the enhanced ion conducting property. The hybrid composite membranes were successfully made in flexible form, and have an excellent thermal and electrochemical stability. Finally, the electrochemical performance of the half-cell was evaluated, and it was confirmed that the ion-conducting characteristics were influenced and controlled by the effect of ILs.     

Influence of ionic liquids as electrolyte additives on chiral separation of dansylated amino acids by using Zn(II) complex mediated chiral ligand exchange CE

In this work, investigation of the comparative influence of diverse ionic liquids (ILs) as electrolyte additives on the chiral separation of dansylated amino acids by using Zn(II)‐L‐arginine complex mediated chiral ligand exchange CE (CLE‐CE) was conducted. It has been found that not only the varied substituted group number, but also the alkyl chain length of the substituted group on imidazole ring in the structure of ILs show different influence on chiral separation of the analytes in the CLE‐CE system, which could be understood by their direct influence on EOF. Meanwhile, the variation of anion in the structure of ILs displayed remarkably changed performance and the ILs with Cl^? showed the most obvious promoting effect on the chiral separation performance. Among the investigated seven ILs, 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium chloride was validated to be the proper electrolyte additive in the CLE‐CE system. Moreover, it has been observed that 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium chloride also has obvious promotive effect on the labeling performance. The results have demonstrated that the ILs with different structures have important relation to their performance in CLE‐CE and to their labeling efficiency in dansylation of the analytes.     

Ionic liquid/water mixtures: from hostility to conciliation

Water was originally inimical to ionic liquids (ILs) especially in the analysis of their detailed properties. Various data on the properties of ILs indicate that there are two ways to design functions of ionic liquids. The first is to change the structure of component ions, to provide "task-specific ILs". The second is to mix ILs with other components, such as other ILs, organic solvents or water. Mixing makes it easy to control the properties of the solution. In this strategy, water is now a very important partner. Below, we summarise our recent results on the properties of IL/water mixtures. Stable phase separation is an effective method in some separation processes. Conversely, a dynamic phase change between a homogeneous mixture and separation of phases is important in many fields. Analysis of the relation between phase behaviour and the hydration state of the component ions indicates that the pattern of phase separation is governed by the hydrophilicity of the ions. Sufficiently hydrophilic ions yielded ILs that are miscible with water, and hydrophobic ions gave stable phase separation with water. ILs composed of hydrophobic but hydrated ions undergo a dynamic phase change between a homogeneous mixture and separate phases according to temperature. ILs having more than seven water molecules per ion pair undergo this phase transition. These dynamic phase changes are considered, with some examples, and application is made to the separation of water-soluble proteins.     

离子液体作为流动相添加剂的亲水作用色谱-间接紫外检测法分析四丁基磷与四丁基铵

发展了用咪唑离子液体作为流动相添加剂的亲水作用色谱-间接紫外检测四丁基磷和四丁基铵的分析方法。研究了咪唑离子液体、吡啶离子液体作为流动相添加剂对四丁基磷和四丁基铵分析的影响,考察了咪唑离子液体的浓度、有机溶剂含量、检测波长等因素的影响,并讨论了离子液体的作用。采用亲水作用色谱柱,以乙腈-1.0 mmol/L 1-乙基-3-甲基咪唑四氟硼酸盐(体积比60∶40)为流动相,在色谱柱温度30℃,流速1.0 mL/min,紫外检测波长210 nm条件下,四丁基磷和四丁基铵离子在15 min内得到完全分离。检出限为1.0～1.2 mg/L,线性和重现性良好。将此方法应用于松花江水样品和克音河水样品的分析,加标回收率为95.9%～107%。该方法简单,易于应用。     

离子液体吸收分离SO2

离子液体具有极低的挥发性、良好的热稳定性和化学稳定性以及结构性质可调等特点,被认为是一种环境友好的溶剂。由于其结构性质可调,可以设计合成出对SO₂有较高溶解能力和选择性的离子液体,在SO₂的吸收和分离领域得到了研究者的青睐。本文综述了各种用于分离捕集烟气和混合气体中SO₂的离子液体,介绍了它们的结构特点、吸收特性和强化方法,探讨了离子液体脱硫的相关机理,最后对离子液体吸收分离SO₂中存在的问题、发展方向和应用前景进行了论述。     

Ionic liquids used in and analyzed by capillary and microchip electrophoresis

This review, covering reports published from 2001 to December 2008, shows how ionic liquids (ILs) have made significant contributions in the improvement of capillary and microchip electrophoresis (CE and μCE) for the separation and detection of analytes such as phenols and aromatic acids, metal ions, medicines, enantiomers, biological materials, etc. Furthermore, CE methods applied in the sensitive and accurate determination of physico-chemical properties of ILs have been summarized. Accordingly, research vacancies and future development trends in these areas are discussed.     

Ionic cyclodextrins in ionic liquid matrices as chiral stationary phases for gas chromatography

Ionic liquids (ILs) are used to dissolve ionic cyclodextrin (CD) derivatives to produce a new type of gas chromatographic chiral stationary phase. Compared to a previous study with neutral cyclodextrin chiral selectors, the new ionic liquid-based stationary phase exhibits broader enantioselectivities, up to seven times higher efficiencies, and greater thermal stabilities. When compared to the analogous commercial column with polysiloxane matrix, it exhibits different enantioselectivities, more symmetric peak shapes and some complementary enantioseparations. The most profound separation enhancements are usually found for more polar analytes.     

CO2/离子液体体系热力学性质的分子动力学模拟

超临界CO2和离子液体(ILs)是两种绿色溶剂. 离子液体可以溶解超临界CO2, 而超临界CO2不能溶解离子液体. 由此设计构成的CO2/IL二元系统, 同时具备了超临界CO2和离子液体的许多优点: 既可以降低离子液体的粘度, 还便于相分离, 是新型的耦合绿色溶剂. 其物理化学性质对于设计反应、分离等过程非常重要. 因此, 本文以CO2/IL二元系统为研究对象, 通过选择合适的分子力场和系综, 运用分子动力学(MD)模拟方法研究了CO2/[bmim][PF6]、CO2/[bmim][NO3]等体系的热力学性质. 结果表明, CO2对ILs膨胀度的影响非常小, 当CO2摩尔分数为0.5时, ILs膨胀仅为15%. CO2/ILs的扩散系数远小于CO2膨胀甲醇、乙醇溶液的扩散系数. 随着CO2含量的增加, ILs的扩散系数提高, 粘度显著下降, 表明CO2能有效地改善ILs扩散性, 减小其粘度. 因此CO2可用以改善离子液体溶剂体系的传递特性, 增强反应分离过程在其中的进行.