Hydrophobicity, bonded phases determination

In general, there is a wide variety of chromatographic modes (types) that can be employed for the HPLC determination of food components, but only a few have been used for the determination of NOC. These include partition/adsorption on silica gel, liquid-liquid partition on polar-bonded phase (e.g., cyano, amino) or nonpolar hydrophobic-bonded phase (e.g., reversed-phase), and anion-exchange chromatography. Macrae (61) discussed the theories behind the various modes of chromatography. 

In RPC separation of peptides, the fundamental structural properties of the amino adds within the sequence and the relative accessibility of the nonpolar amino add residues to a large measure determine the overall selectivity that can be achieved with a defined RPC systemJ20-23 As a consequence, peptides typically elute from RPC sorbents in the order of their relative hydrophobicities, for a pre-selected mobile-phase composition, pH, and temperature. However, the relative hydrophobicities of different peptides are also conditional on the solvation environment in which they are placed. The exposure or greater accessibility of previously sequestered polar or hydrophobic amino acid side chains in polypeptides with well-developed secondary structures will thus significantly affect the relative binding affinities of these peptides to hydrocarbonaceous-bonded phase surfaces. 

Determinations of the adsorption isotherms for a number of organic solvent-water systems in contact with hydrocarbonaceous stationary phases have shown that a layer of solvent molecules forms on the bonded-phase surface and that the extent of the layer increases with the concentration of the solvent in the mobile phase. For example, methanol shows a Langmuir-type isotherm when distributed between water and Partisil ODS (56). This effect can be exploited to enhance the resolution and the recoveries of hydrophobic peptides by the use of low concentrations, i.e., <5% v/v, of medium-chain alkyl alcohols such as tm-butanol or tert-pentanol or other polar, but nonionic solvents added to aquo-methanol or acetonitrile eluents. It also highlights the cautionary requirement that adequate equilibration of a reversed-phase system is mandatory if reproducible chromatography is to be obtained with surface-active components in the mobile phase. 

Whereas the overall hydrophobic nature of the stationary phase is the most important factor in determining retention, bonded-phase structure can also influence k values. This effect can be observed in the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). For stationary phases with a high bonding density and/or a high degree of association between adjacent bonded organic moieties, molecules that are more planar are preferentially retained. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed reference mixtures to measure this effect. 

Typical applications of reversed-phase chromatography are shown in Table 2. Beyond analytical apphca-tions, RP-TLC on bonded phases is also a tool for physicochemical measurements, particularly for molecular hpophilicity determination of biologically active compounds. Hydrophobicity can be measured by partition between an immiscible polar and nonpolar solvent pair, particularly in the reference system n-oc-tanol-water. The partition coefficient, P, is frequently used to interpret quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR studies). 

Most applications of liquid column chromatography are now made on silica which has been chemically modified (bonded phase chromatography). The modification is made by chemical reaction between the silanol groups and a chlorosilane compound. The carbon radicals of the chlorosilane compound determines the nature of the final column material. Using silanes containing alkyl carbon chains with 8-22 carbon atoms gives the particles hydrophobic surfaces, but more polar surfaces may be obtained by incorporation of alcohol, amino, cyano or other groups in the alkyl chain. 

Examples of reversed-phase HPLC bonded phases are given in Table 1. These include alkyl bonded silica, where the R group is an alkyl chain, the length of which determines the degree of hydrophobicity (C18, C8, C4, etc.) the phenyl stationary phase. 

Valko et al. [37] developed a fast-gradient RP-HPLC method for the determination of a chromatographic hydrophobicity index (CHI). An octadecylsilane (ODS) column and 50 mM aqueous ammonium acetate (pH 7.4) mobile phase with acetonitrile as an organic modifier (0-100%) were used. The system calibration and quality control were performed periodically by measuring retention for 10 standards unionized at pH 7.4. The CHI could then be used as an independent measure of hydrophobicity. In addition, its correlation with linear free-energy parameters explained some molecular descriptors, including H-bond basicity/ acidity and dipolarity/polarizability. It is noted [27] that there are significant differences between CHI values and octanol-water log D values. 

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