Binary eluent adsorption equilibrium

The binary eluent adsorption equilibrium is considered to be not disturbed by the injection of a small amount of the analyte (essentially the third component in the system). In an isocratic mode at a fixed eluent composition, the organic adsorbed layer is a stationary phase for the analyte to partition into. The analyte can partition into the adsorbed layer followed by consequent adsorption on the surface of the reversed-phase adsorbent. The overall retention is a superposition of two consecutive processes. Since the eluent component adsorption could be measured independently and adsorbed layer volume could be represented as a function of the mobile phase composition, the analyte retention also could be expressed as a function of the eluent composition. 

Equation (2-46) is only applicable for binary systems (analyte—single component mobile phase). Similar expression could be derived if we assume that the adsorption of the analyte does not disturb the equilibrium of the binary eluent system. 

A chromatographic system consisting of the binary eluent (e.g., acetonitrile-water) with liophilic salt added in low concentration (not more than lOOmM), along with basic analyte, is considered here. Adsorption behavior of acetonitrile in the column has been discussed in Section 2.12, and we assume that low concentrations of liophilic salt additives and injection of small amount of the analyte does not noticeably disturb its adsorption equilibrium. 

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