A unified classification of stationary phases for packed column supercritical fluid chromatography

The use of supercritical fluids as chromatographic mobile phases allows to obtain rapid separations with high efficiency on packed columns, which could favour the replacement of numerous HPLC methods by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) ones. Moreover, despite some unexpected chromatographic behaviours, general retention rules are now well understood, and mainly depend on the nature of the stationary phase. The use of polar stationary phases improves the retention of polar compounds, when C18-bonded silica favours the retention of hydrocarbonaceous compounds. In this sense, reversed-phase and normal-phase chromatography can be achieved in SFC, as in HPLC. However, these two domains are clearly separated in HPLC due to the opposite polarity of the mobile phases used for each method. In SFC, the same mobile phase can be used with both polar and non-polar stationary phases. Consequently, the need for a novel classification of stationary phases in SFC appears, allowing a unification of the classical reversed- and normal-phase domains. In this objective, the paper presents the development of a five-dimensional classification based on retention data for 94-111 solutes, using 28 commercially available columns representative of three major types of stationary phases. This classification diagram is based on a linear solvation energy relationship, on the use of solvation vectors and the calculation of similarity factors between the different chromatographic systems. This classification will be of great help in the choice of the well-suited stationary phase, either in regards of a particular separation or to improve the coupling of columns with complementary properties.     

超临界流体色谱与高效液相色谱分离手性化合物的比较

超临界流体色谱(SFC)分离具有速度快、分离效率高、溶剂消耗少等优点,近年来在手性化合物的分离分析中得到诸多应用。本文对比研究了涂覆型多糖手性色谱柱在SFC和高效液相色谱(HPLC)上拆分24种手性化合物的差异。通过比较这些化合物在色谱柱上的保留时间和选择因子等发现多数化合物在SFC上的分离效率要高于其在HPLC上的分离效率,但HPLC对轴手性化合物的分离效率要优于SFC。SFC和HPLC的分离表现出一定的互补性,随着苯环侧链烷基的碳数增加,化合物在SFC上的保留逐渐增强,而在HPLC的保留却逐渐减弱。叶菌唑在使用SFC和HPLC分析时出现了洗脱顺序反转的现象。这些结果为SFC手性拆分提供了参考。     

Characterisation of stationary phases in supercritical fluid chromatography with the solvation parameter model V. Elaboration of a reduced set of test solutes for rapid evaluation

Characterisation of chromatographic systems with the solvation parameter model provides satisfactory information on the main non-ionic interactions developed in a chromatographic system. The procedure requires the analysis of a large number of compounds to warrant the relevance and the accuracy of the calculated models, and even if retention time is lower in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) than in HPLC (3-5 times lower), a decrease in the time required for that procedure would favour the use of this model in method development. Consequently, in order to establish a rapid testing procedure that would provide equivalent information, nine key solutes were carefully selected among the hundred we classically use. The separation factors calculated between these key solutes, taken two by two to establish new equations, allow the calculation of the model coefficients. The normal testing procedure is thus reduced from one or two days down to 2h. Precision and accuracy of the models provided are assessed through back-calculation of the coefficients that served for the establishment of the procedure, then through calculation of the coefficients of 13 new SFC systems. The applicability of the rapid testing procedure in SFC is evidenced with three examples: the elaboration of a system map, by varying the modifier concentration in the mobile phase, and the comparison of six ODS phases bonded on the same silica base. The simplified procedure presented here does not pretend to characterize the chromatographic systems as precisely as the complete testing procedure does, but is only aimed at rapidly evaluating the chromatographic retention characteristics when operating parameters are varied.     

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.     

Application of supercritical fluid chromatography to the analysis of hydrophobic metabolites

This review describes the usefulness of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) in the analysis of hydrophobic metabolites. The use of SFC for the analysis of naturally occurring polyprenols markedly improves the chromatographic resolution of polyprenol homologues and their geometric isomers as compared to conventional HPLC. Under optimized SFC conditions, individual homologues with 10-100-mers were separated. Furthermore, we established an analytical system for the fingerprinting and profiling of diverse lipids through the usage of SFC-MS. When a cyanopropylated silica gel packed column was used for the separation, 14 lipids were successfully detected, and the time required for analysis was less than 15 min. The use of an octadecylsilylated column for the separation depended on the differences in the fatty acid side chains. SFC is a useful separation technology for hydrophobic metabolites, which are difficult to be separated by HPLC.     

基于巯基-烯点击化学法的β-环糊精固定相多模式色谱保留行为研究

基于巯基硅胶与单取代-6A-烯丙氨基-β-环糊精的巯基-烯点击化学反应,制备了β-环糊精(Click TE-CD)共价键合固定相。元素分析结果表明β-环糊精被成功键合到硅胶表面。以黄酮苷类化合物为模型,考察了Click TE-CD固定相在亲水、反相和超临界流体色谱等分离模式下的色谱保留行为。黄酮苷类化合物保留时间随流动相中乙腈含量的变化呈现典型的U型曲线,表明Click TE-CD固定相具有亲水/反相的双重保留特性。应用几何学方法测得Click TE-CD固定相在反相/亲水、亲水/超临界、反相/超临界混合模式下的正交性分别为69.8%、50.8%、50.8%。对比复杂中药样品降香提取物在反相、亲水、超临界等模式下的分离情况,结果表明Click TE-CD固定相在分离中药复杂样品方面具有极大潜力,可以在一根色谱柱上通过分离模式的改变,实现二维液相色谱的分离。Click TE-CD固定相不同分离模式的分离性能和较好的正交性表明该固定相具有在液相色谱方法发展和二维液相色谱分离方面应用的潜力。     

A simple subcritical chromatographic test for an extended ODS high performance liquid chromatography column classification

This paper describes a new test designed in subcritical fluid chromatography (SFC) to compare the commercial C18 stationary phase properties. This test provides, from a single analysis of carotenoid pigments, the absolute hydrophobicity, the silanol activity and the steric separation factor of the ODS stationary phases. Both the choice of the analytical conditions and the validation of the information obtained from the chromatographic measurements are detailed. Correlations of the carotenoid test results with results obtained from other tests (Tanaka, Engelhard, Sander and Wise) performed both in SFC and HPLC are discussed. Two separation factors, calculated from the retention of carotenoid pigments used as probe, allowed to draw a first classification diagram. Columns, which present identical chromatographic behaviors are located in the same area on this diagram. This location can be related to the stationary phase properties: endcapping treatments, bonding density, linkage functionality, specific area or silica pore diameter. From the first classification, eight groups of columns are distinguished. One group of polymer coated silica, three groups of polymeric octadecyl phases, depending on the pore size and the endcapping treatment, and four groups of monomeric stationary phases. An additional classification of the four monomeric groups allows the comparison of these stationary phases inside each group by using the total hydrophobicity. One hundred and twenty-nine columns were analysed by this simple and rapid test, which allows a comparison of columns with the aim of helping along their choice in HPLC.     

High-performance liquid chromatography systems for the separation of benzodiazepines and their metabolites

The high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) retention characteristics of 21 benzodiazepine drugs and some of their metabolites have been examined on both silica and ODS-silica packing materials. Four HPLC systems have been considered and retention data are presented for the drugs on these systems. The correlation of retention data on the systems is considered with reference to the problem of identifying unknown benzodiazepines.     

Retention behaviour of carboxylic acid methyl esters in supercritical fluid chromatography

The study on retention behavior in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is necessary to understand the mechanism of the various interactions in SFC. The retention of SFC in carboxylic acid methyl ester/polymethylsiloxane/CO2 system was studied systematically and the retention behavior of this kind of compounds under various typical operation conditions was described using the method of an alternative unified theory of chromatographic retention. The results illustrated that expression: Ink.= a + b/T + cp + dp/T + ep2/T can be used to describe quantitatively the retention behavior of carboxylic acid methyl ester/polymethylsiloxane/CO2 system in the ranges of reduced density from 0.549 to 1.411. It was also found that the entropy of solute in stationary phase is dependent on the density of supercritical fluid (SF) under typical operating conditions of SFC.     

Thermodynamic investigations on shape selective separation behaviors of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-grafted silica for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in both normal-phase and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

With the successful implementation of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-grafted silica prepared by grafting-from approach (GF-VP(n)) as a stationary phase for the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in normal-phase HPLC, this paper describes the chromatographic retention behaviors of PAHs with GF-VP(n) in reversed-phase HPLC. Significantly higher retention factor along with enhanced shape selectivity were observed with GF-VP(n). Thermodynamic study on the retention behaviors of PAHs with GF-VP(n) in normal-phase and reversed-phase HPLC revealed that retention of PAHs was exothermic in both phases. Furthermore, higher entropic contribution was observed in reversed-phase HPLC compared to normal-phase HPLC.     

Advantages and drawbacks of popular supercritical fluid chromatography/mass interfacing approaches--a user's perspective

Mobile phases in supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) have low viscosities and high diffusion coefficients with respect to those of traditional high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). These properties allow higher mobile phase flow rates and/or longer columns in SFC, resulting in rapid analyses and high efficiency separations. In addition, chiral SFC is becoming especially popular. Mass spectrometry (MS) is arguably the most popular "informative" detector for chromatographic separations. Most SFC/MS is performed with atmospheric pressure ionization (API) sources. Unlike LC/MS, the interface between the SFC column and the API source must allow control of the downstream (post-column) pressure while also providing good chromatographic fidelity. Here we compare and contrast the popular interfacing approaches. Some are simple, such as direct effluent introduction with no active back-pressure-regulator (BPR) in high speed bioanalytical applications. The pressure-regulating-fluid interface is more versatile and provides excellent chromatographic fidelity, but is less user friendly. The pre-BPR- split interface and an interface which provides total-flow-introduction with a mechanical BPR are good compromises between user friendliness and performance, and have become the most popular among practitioners. Applications of SFC/MS using these various interfaces are also discussed.     

Supercritical fluid chromatographic solvatochromic modifier polarity studies

To understand the chromatographic process as a whole, whether it be for gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), or supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), one needs to know the chemical and physical nature of the mobile and stationary phases and also the interactions that take place between analytes (solutes) and the two phases. An approach towards Investigating the ways that stationary and mobile phases contribute to chromatographic retention Involves exploring the effects of solvent polarity on the strength of the mobile phase. In SFC this could involve determining the polarity of several different modifier/carbon dioxide mobile phases. In this paper, the use of a solvatochromic indicator to learn more about the effects of SFC modifier/mobile phase polarity will be investigated and discussed using several different modifiers and a diolmodified silica column.     

High-performance liquid chromatography and capillary supercritical-fluid chromatography separation of vegetable carotenoids and carotenoid isomers

Carotenoids from carrots and tomatoes were separated with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and capillary supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). All trans alpha- and beta-carotene were separated from their respective cis-isomers with capillary SFC. Carotenoids extracted from tomatoes included xanthophyll, lycopene and beta-carotene, while alpha- and beta-carotene were extracted from carrots. The HPLC separations were accomplished isocratically with a 25-cm column containing 5-microns ODS and methanol-acetonitrile-chloroform (47:47:6) or acetonitrile-dichloromethane (80:20). beta-Carotene cis-isomers were separated with SFC with a SB-cyanopropyl-25-polymethylsiloxane column, while alpha-carotene isomers were separated with two SB-cyanopropyl-50-polymethylsiloxane columns. Carotenoids from carrots and tomatoes were separated with a SB-phenyl-50-polymethylsiloxane column. Carbon dioxide with 1% ethanol was the SFC mobile phase. The eluent was monitored at 461 nm for HPLC and either 453 or 461 nm for SFC.     

Phenylaminopropyl silica--a new specific stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatography of phenols

The chromatographic properties of a new stationary phase, phenylaminopropyl silica (PhA-silica), containing phenylaminopropyl residues covalently bonded to the silica surface were studied. The presence of secondary amino groups, phenyl rings and alkyl linkers in the attached molecule makes it especially suitable for the separation of phenols by mixed mode retention mechanism including a combination of hydrogen-bonding, hydrophobic, electrostatic and pi-pi interactions with the stationary phase. The effects of mobile phase pH, ionic strength, nature and concentration of organic modifier on the retention of phenols on PhA-silica were investigated under conditions of reversed-phase HPLC. To elucidate the role of the amino group in the attached molecule in retention of phenols the selectivity of PhA-silica was compared with that obtained for phenylpropyl silica in the framework of a linear solvation energy relationship (LSER) model. The isocratic separation of phenol, and its nine methyl-, chloro- and nitro-substituted derivatives was achieved on a 150x4.6 mm I.D. chromatographic column packed with 7 microm particles of PhA-silica.     

Thin-layer chromatography as a pilot technique for HPLC demonstrated with pesticide samples

The transferability of chromatographic conditions from TLC precoated plates to HPLC columns have been investigated using 62 different pesticides. For the investigation different stationary phases (silica gel, RP-18, RP-8, Diol, NH₂, CN) have been used with standard substances on the one hand and a real sample on the other hand. Rf-values of the pesticides have been converted to k'p, a retention value comparable to HPLC, and have been then compared with k'c values of the HPLC columns with the corresponding chromatographic system. For the evaluation of the results the respective data pairs have been correlated by linear regression. Good results of transfer have been obtained on every stationary phase. In the case of silica gel- and Diol-phases some restrictions have to be made, because of different activity between TLC and HPLC sorbent. In order to show that the transfer of chromatographic conditions is not limited to standards, the experiments have been extended to a spiked real sample (lettuce). The influence of the matrix is shown to be negligible and excellent transfer results are able to be realised.     

Comparative study of the enantioselective separation of several antiulcer drugs by high-performance liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography

A comparative study of the enantiomeric separation of several antiulcer drugs such as omeprazole, lansoprazole, rabeprazole and pantoprazole using HPLC and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) on the Chrialpak AD column is presented in this work. The results show that employing the above mentioned column only two compounds (omeprazole and pantoprazole) could be enantiomerically resolved using HPLC, on the contrary SFC allowed the enantiomeric separation of all the compounds studied with higher resolutions and lower analysis times.     

Integration of supercritical fluid chromatography into drug discovery as a routine support tool. II. investigation and evaluation of supercritical fluid chromatography for achiral batch purification

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has recently been implemented within our analytical technologies department as a purity assessment and purification tool to complement HPLC for isomer and chiral separations. This report extends the previous work to achiral analysis and purification. This internal evaluation explores the potential impact SFC can have on high throughput, batch purification. Achiral methods have been optimised and batches of compounds purified using a retention time mapping strategy. Here the preparative retention time is predicted from a standard calibration curve and fraction windows set to ensure the peak of interest is collected in one of the four available fraction positions. In this contribution, a completely indirect scale up strategy is applied using totally independent analytical and preparative methods. This novel approach allows for fast analytical purity analysis without compromising the ability to scale up to the preparative system. The benefits and limitations of SFC for batch purification are described in comparison to HPLC across a set of standard compounds and a set of 90 research compounds.     

Characterization of polystyrene and polyisoprene by normal-phase temperature gradient interaction chromatography

Temperature gradient interaction chromatography (TGIC) is applied to the characterization of polyisoprene (PI) and polystyrene (PS) using normal-phase (NP) stationary phase--bare silica or diol bonded silica. Tetrahydrofuran-isooctane mixtures are used as a mobile phase. PI and linear and star shaped PS samples are successfully fractionated in terms of the molecular mass with a high resolution comparable to that of reversed-phase (RP) HPLC. Temperature dependence of the retention shows that the enthalpy of adsorption of PS to the stationary phase is exothermic. In addition, some characteristic features of the NP-TGIC system relative to those of RP-TGIC are presented, which include a high sensitivity on the polar end group and the simultaneous size-exclusion chromatographic and TGIC characterization of PS and PI mixtures.     

A study of polyethoxylated alkylphenols by packed column supercritical fluid chromatography

Alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APEs) are a widely used group of nonionic surfactants in commercial production. Characterization of the composition of APE mixtures can be exploited for the determination of their most effective uses. In this study sample mixtures contain nonylphenol polyethoxylates and octylphenol polyethoxylates. The separation of individual alkylphenols by ethoxylate units is performed by supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)-UV as well as normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC)-UV employing packed columns. The stationary phase and column length are varied in the SFC setup to produce the most favorable separation conditions. Additionally, combinations of packed columns of different stationary phases are tested. The combination of a diol and a cyano column is found to produce optimal results. An advantage of using packed columns instead of capillary columns is the ability to inject large amounts of sample and thus collect eluted fractions. In this regard, fractions from SFC runs are collected and analyzed by flow injection analysis-electrospray ionization-mass spectroscopy in order to positively identify the composition of the fractions. In comparing the separation of APE mixtures by SFC and HPLC, it is found that SFC provides shorter retention times with similar resolution. In addition, less solvent waste is produced using SFC.     

Stability of high-performance liquid chromatography columns packed with poly(methyloctylsiloxane) sorbed and radiation-immobilized onto porous silica and zirconized silica

Reversed-phase packing materials were prepared from HPLC silica and from zirconized HPLC silica support particles having sorbed poly(methyloctylsiloxane) (PMOS) as the stationary phase. Portions of zirconized material were subjected to 80 kGy of ionizing radiation. Columns prepared from these packing materials were subjected to 5000 column volumes each of neutral and alkaline (pH 10) mobile phases, with periodic tests to evaluate chromatographic performance. It was shown that the PMOS stationary phase sorbed onto zirconized silica requires an immobilization treatment (such as gamma irradiation) for long term stability while prior surface zirconization of the silica support surface greatly improves the chromatographic stability of the stationary phase when using alkaline mobile phases.