An unexpected observation concerning the effect of anionic additives on the retention behavior of basic drugs and peptides in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Anionic species with ion pair forming ability are commonly used to enhance the retention and efficiency of basic analytes in RPLC separations. However, little is known about the interactions between organic mobile phase modifiers and such ion pairing anions. In this work, we measured the magnitude of the retention increase of basic drugs and peptides upon addition of strong inorganic ion pairing anions (e.g. perchlorate) as a function of the volume fraction of modifier in acidic water-acetonitrile mobile phases on two different stationary phases. We found that the increase in retention upon addition of various salts depended strongly on the eluent strength. In general, larger retention increases upon addition of the anion were observed at higher organic fractions. Regression of retention against the volume fraction of organic modifier indicated that the ion pair forming anions substantially decreased S values while only slightly changing ln k'w values. The decrease in S is the major cause of the retention increase of basic drugs and peptides when such anions are added to the mobile phase.