Duplicating the Retention of Cationic Analytes Obtained with Ammonium Formate Mobile Phases when Switching to UV Transparent Mobile Phase Additives in RP-LC

This study explored feasibility of utilizing sodium phosphate and mixtures of sodium phosphate and sodium perchlorate salts in mobile phases as UV transparent alternatives to the ammonium formate salts commonly used in LC–MS mobile phases. Chromatography experiments were run at pH 3.5 in 25% acetonitrile mobile phase, using several model cationic analytes to evaluate cation retention on two different C18 columns as the type or amount of salt was varied. For both columns, phosphate consistently showed less cation retention than formate. In other respects, the two columns showed very different behavior. The study suggests that it is feasible to use UV transparent mobile phase additives to provide comparable cation retention of formate mobile phases, but that the exact composition needed for optimal retention agreement is column dependent.