Nonlinear liquid chromatography adsorption isotherm

There are a number of causes of peak asymmetry in both gas and liquid chromatography, including heat of adsorption, high activity sites on the support or absorbent, and nonlinear adsorption isotherms. Assuming that good quality supports and adsorbents are used, and the column is well thermostatted, the major factor causing peak asymmetry appears to result from nonlinear adsorption isotherms. 

With binary and ternary supercritical mixtures as chromatographic mobile phases, solute retention mechanisms are unclear. Polar modifiers produce a nonlinear relationship between the log of solute partition ratios (k ) and the percentage of modifier in the mobile phase. The only form of liquid chromatography (LC) that produces non-linear retention is liquid-solid adsorption chromatography (LSC) where the retention of solutes follows the adsorption isotherm of the polar modifier (6). Recent measurements confirm that extensive adsorption of both carbon dioxide (7,8) and methanol (8,9) occurs from supercritical methanol/carbon dioxide mixtures. Although extensive adsorption of mobile phase components clearly occurs, a classic adsorption mechanism does not appear to describe chromatographic behavior of polar solutes in packed column SFC. 

Study of the mechanism of adsorption in TLC is more difficult than in column liquid chromatography. The nonlinear isotherm model in TLC can be designed in a qualitative way only, after investigation of chromatographic band shape and of the concentration distribution within this band phenomena characteristic of TLC band formation can also have a major effect on the mechanism of retention. 

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