NPLC

Surfactants are separated according to adsorption or partitioning differences with a polar stationary phase in NPLC. This retention of the polar surfactant moiety allows for the separation of the ethylene oxide distribution. Of all the NPLC packings that have been utilized to separate nonionic surfactants, the aminopropyl-bonded stationary phases have been shown to give the best resolution (Jandera et al., 1990). The separation of the octylphenol ethoxylate oligomers on an amino silica column is shown in Fig. 18.4. Similar to the capabilities of CE for ionic surfactants, the ethylene oxide distribution can be quantitatively determined by NPLC if identity and response factors for each oligomer are known. 

FIGURE 18.4 NPLC chromatogram of Triton X-100. Conditions Supelco LC-NH2 column, 15 cm x 4.6 mm and 3 pm particles linear gradient of 80/20/0 (heptane/tetrahydrofiiran/ methanol) to 0/90/10 in 40 min at a flow rate of 1 mL/min evaporative light scattering detection. 

FIGURE 18.5 Amino NPLC chromatograms of Novel II1412-70 (a) and Neodol 25-12 (b). The inset shows an expanded view of the chromatograms from 28 to 38 min. Reprinted from Murphy et al. (1998b), with permission of the American Chemical Society. 

The solute used in Fig. 18.4 had a fixed alkyl chain length, and as the alkyl distribution increases, one-dimensional NPLC separations become more complex. In Fig. 18.5 the amino silica chromatograms of Novel II1412-70 and Neodol 25-12 are shown, and their corresponding chemical compositions are given in Table 18.2 along with other AE s. 

TABLE 18.2 Alkyl and Ethylene Oxide Compositions of Alcohol Ethoxylates 

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Presently, the on-line coupling of NPLC and GC via heart-cutting is an established procedure which has been used successfully for several bioanalytical applications. Obviously, dfrect analysis of aqueous samples is not possible by NPLC, and therefore, a solvent switch by a sample pretreatment step (e.g. liquid-liquid extraction or SPE) is always requfred when biological samples are analysed by NPLC-GC. 

On-line coupling of normal-phase liquid chromatography (NPLC) and gas chromatography is today a well developed and robust procedure and has been regularly applied to environmental analysis. When a fraction of the NPLC sample is introduced in to the GC unit, a large-volume interface (LVI) is needed but, due to the volatility of the organic solvent used in NPLC, this does not present such a great problem. 

One example of normal-phase liquid chromatography coupled to gas chromatography is the determination of alkylated, oxygenated and nitrated polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) in urban air particulate extracts (97). Since such extracts are very complex, LC-GC is the best possible separation technique. A quartz microfibre filter retains the particulate material and supercritical fluid extraction (SPE) with CO2 and a toluene modifier extracts the organic components from the dust particles. The final extract is then dissolved in -hexane and analysed by NPLC. The transfer at 100 p.1 min of different fractions to the GC system by an on-column interface enabled many PACs to be detected by an ion-trap detector. A flame ionization detector (PID) and a 350 p.1 loop interface was used to quantify the identified compounds. The experimental conditions employed are shown in Table 13.2. 

A more complicated, but flexible, system has been reported by Blomberg et al. (46). Here, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), normal phase EC (NPLC) and GC were coupled for the characterization of restricted (according to size) and selected (according to polarity) fractions of long residues. The seemingly incompatible separation modes, i.e. SEC and NPLC, are coupled by using an on-line solvent-evaporation step. 

The mechanism of reversed phase chromatography can be understood by contrast with normal phase chromatography. Normal phase liquid chromatography (NPLC) is usually performed on a polar silica stationary phase with a nonpolar mobile phase, while reversed phase chromatography is performed on a nonpolar stationary phase with a polar mobile phase. In RPLC, solute retention is mainly due to hydrophobic interactions between the solutes and the nonpolar hydrocarbon stationary surface. The nonpolar... 

A particular column can be used for different types of LC by changing the eluent components. For example, a column packed with RP-18 bonded silica gel can be used for SEC with THF, NPLC with n-hexane, and RPLC with aqueous acetonitrile. When separation cannot be achieved by improving the theoretical plate number of a column, it may be achieved by selection of an appropriate stationary phase material and/or eluent. 

Normal-phase (NP) and reversed-phase (RP) liquid chromatography are simple divisions of the LC techniques based on the relative polarities of the mobile and stationary phases (Figure 4.10). Both NPLC and RPLC analysis make use of either the isocratic or gradient elution modes of separation (i.e. constant or variable composition of the mobile phase, respectively). Selection from these four available separation techniques depends on many variables but basically on the number and chemical structure of the compounds to be separated and on the scope of the analysis. 

When the predominant functional group of the stationary phase is more polar than the commonly used mobile phases, the separation technique is termed normal-phase HPLC (NPLC), formerly also called adsorption liquid chromatography. In NPLC, many types... 

In NPLC, which refers to the use of adsorption, i.e. liquid-solid chromatography (LSC), the surface of microparticulate silica (or other adsorbent) constitutes the most commonly used polar stationary phase normal bonded-phase chromatography (N-BPC) is typified by nitrile- or amino-bonded stationary phases. Silica columns with a broad range of properties are commercially available (with standard particle sizes of 3, 5 and 10 im, and pore sizes of about 6-15nm). A typical HPLC column is packed with a stationary phase of a pore size of 10 nm and contains a surface area of between 100 and 150m2 mL-1 of mobile phase volume. 

Normal-phase chromatography is still widely used for the determination of nonpolar additives in a variety of commercial products and pharmaceutical formulations, e.g. the separation of nonpolar components in the nonionic surfactant Triton X-100. Most of the NPLC analyses of polymer additives have been performed in isocratic mode [576]. However, isocratic HPLC methods are incapable of separating a substantial number of industrially used additives [605,608,612-616], Normal-phase chromatography of Irgafos 168, Irganox 1010/1076/3114 was shown [240]. NPLC-UV has been used for quantitative analysis of additives in PP/(Irganox 1010/1076, Irgafos 168) after Soxhlet extraction (88%... 

Oligomeric additives with broad MWD tend to be a problem in conventional HPLC conditions. In cases where no interest exists in the oligomer distribution it is common practice to solve the problem by creating a uniform structural unit useful for analysis. For example, isocratic (or gradient) LC-UV was used for the determination of the polymeric light stabiliser Tinuvin 622 in polyolefins using dissolution (toluene)/derivatisation (TBAH)-precipitation (alcohol) the diol formed was quantitatively determined by NPLC [653]. 

Monomeric HALS have been determined by HPLC [470,663]. Excellent separation was achieved for HALS-type samples (Tinuvin 770 and Chimassorb 944) with NPLC-PDA (230 nm) using an amino column with acetonitrile/water as the mobile phase RPLC using C or cyano columns was not effective [664]. 

Eleven zinc dialkyldithiophosphates (ZDDPs) in lubricating oil additives were separated by NPLC [723] eight ZDDPs were separated on an ODS column... 

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