High Temperature Liquid Chromatography of Tocol-Derivatives on Polybutadiene-Coated Zirconia Stationary Phases

High temperature reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography is evaluated as a new approach for the separation of vitamin E isomers (α-, γ-, δ-tocopherol, and α-, γ-, δ-tocotrienol) and α-tocopherol acetate. The separations of each analyte were examined by varying the eluent composition and column temperature. Using a polybutadiene-coated zirconia column at temperatures of 80 °C–140 °C, complete separations were achieved within 10–20 min using organic modifier (acetonitrile) in the range of 40–50%. Irregularity of the Van’t Hoff analysis was noted over the temperature studied. The plot tends to deviate from linearity at higher operating temperatures (140 °C and 150 °C) with linear deviation errors of 12.7% and 41.6%, respectively, for the mobile phase examined.