Determination of methylamphetamine and related compounds in human urine by high performance liquid chromatography/electrospray/mass spectrometry

The influence of tetrabutylammonium (TBA) as a hydrophobic charged additive of the mobile phase was investigated in a chromatographic system involving d,l-dansyl amino acids as the test solute enantiomers and immobilized human serum albumin as the chiral stationary phase. By varying the column temperature, van't Hoff plots for solute retention and enantioselectivity were performed and thermodynamic parameters were calculated. An enthalpy-entropy compensation study revealed that the type of interaction between the analyte and stationary phase was independent of TBA concentration in the eluent. The counterion dependence on retention indicated that the coulombic interactions between dansyl amino acid and the site II binding cavity were of crucial importance in this association process. Also, the increasing variations of chiral discrimination with a TBA addition were attributed, by an analysis of the thermodynamic parameter trends, to a great facilitation of enantioselective H-bonding between solute and polar residues at the cavity rim.