Chemically bonded stationary phases with incorporated polar groups for liquid chromatography : the synthesis and surface properties

Abstract

In recent years high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has gained a dominant position in the life sciences. The widespread use of this technique allows to perform an analysis of compounds which are used in various areas of human life. Currently, there are wide and fully untapped opportunities for synthesis of chromatographic packings with chemically bonded stationary phases. Some of the liquid chromatographic analyses needs the application of water-rich mobile phases (more than 85% water or a buffer). In such condition the performance of hydrophobic stationary phases indicate that the bonded ligands might be collapsing. This problem could be solved by increasing of organic content in the mobile phase which should improve solvation and bring bonded ligands back to the original conformation. To avoid this procedure, which reduces the retention and selectivity of the separation, it is possible to apply stationary phases with incorporated polar groups mixed with the original alkyl ligands (polar embedded stationary phases). Another possibility is to add some polar groups during endcapping procedure (polar end-capped stationary phases). This produces variation in the bonding. Chemically bonded stationary phases which include both hydrophobic and hydrophilic ligands are so-called mixed mode stationary pahses. These materials can be used in reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) and there is also a possibility to use them in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC). They allow to separate polar and non-polar analytes. Following the idea of green chemistry, especially green analytical chemistry, a series of stationary phases was synthesized. The obtained materials connect polar and hydrophobic groups in the structure of bonded ligands. These specific surface properties provide the stability of the stationary phase in pure water as a mobile phase. Surface properties of novel material were analyzed using various instrumental and chromatographic methods. Finaly, the mixtures of various compounds were applied to test the separation selectivity of stationary phases in various chromatographic system, including purely aqueous conditions