Simple Free Amino Acid Separation by Reversed-Phase Ion-Pair Liquid Chromatography Using Column Switching Technique

Abstract

Reversed-phase ion-pair liquid chromatography with copper (II) ions (RP-IPC-Cu) was applied to develop a high speed separation of free amino acids. Dynamic gradient elution in RP-IPC-Cu could not achieve this purpose due to base line shift, therefore a column switching technique was used with a combination of different alkyl-bonded silica gel columns under isocratic elution. The flexibility of eluent components makes it easy to realize a rapid separation of a mixture of targeted amino acids.