Role of the organic solvent modifier in the reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography of polypeptides

Summary The retention behaviour of several polypeptide hormones on Bondapak C₁₈ columns has been examined using mobile phases of different acetonitrile percentage compositions containing 15 mM triethylammonium phosphate or 15 mM orthophosphoric acid buffers. Under these elution conditions, the capacity factors and the selectivity parameters of these polypeptide hormones show pronounced dependencies on the volume fraction of the organic solvent modifier. In the range 0–40% acetonitrile, the capacity factors were monotonously attenuated with increasing modifier percentages with the elution order essentially in accord with that hat anticipated for a reversed phase separation mode. At higher concentrations of acetonitrile, retention of the polypeptides to the octadecylsilica support progressively increased with elution order reversals indicative of a normal- or polarphase separation mode. These observations are discussed in terms of the interplay of hydrophobic and silanophilic interactions which occur between the ionised polypeptides and the stationary phase under these changing mobile phase conditions.High Performance Liquid Chromatography of Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins, XXXII. For previous publication see ref. [1].