Reversed-phase packing materials, silica-based

The CEC phases must be capable of carrying a charge to generate an EOE and appropriate moieties to facilitate the chromatographic processes. Silica-based reversed-phase packing materials have been most widely used in CEC. The use of polymeric and mixed-mode bonded particles has also been reported. Eor the silica-based phases, the carbon chains bonded on the silica surface provide the retention and selectivity for analytes, and the residual silanol groups on the surface of the silica are ionizable and generate the EOF. 

The stationary phases used in reversed-phase chromatography, when it was first introduced, comprised of a non-polar substance (e.g. squalene) coated on to a silica-based support. These are now seldom used. The stability of such systems is low, because the forces holding, say, squalene to even a silylated silica are so weak that the stationary phase is easily washed from the column. A compromise reversed-phase packing material was developed, which had a polymeric hydrocarbon stationary phase on the support, but although quite successful it has now been superseded by a chemically bonded stationary phase of which some examples are discussed below. 

The choice of reverse phase packing material will depend on the amount of information available on the component of interest and on other sample components. Initial tests such as solvent partitioning behavior, solubility m various solvents, and others see Chapter 1) can be used to estimate polarity and hence be of use in initial column/mobile phase selection. The most retentive of the silica-based reverse phase supports, Cl8 and C8, are a sensible first choice, as the retention of polar compounds is maximized, while the retention of nonpolar materials can be easily modulated by choice of eluent. If the compound of interest is very nonpolar (or the sample contains components that bind very strongly to retentive phases such as C8/C18), a shorter chain alkyl-bonded phase such as C6 or C4 may be more suitable. 

A unified theory recently proposed to explain the manner of sorption and the form of sorption isotherm in gas, liquid, and ion-exchange chromatography is presented in some detail. Selectivity in reversed-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography is explored at length. Several chapters deal with characterization of bonded phases, relationship of column-packing structure and performance, variability of reversed-phase packing materials, and the differences between silica-based reversed-phase and poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) columns. A short review is included to cover various approaches used in HPLC to achieve the desired selectivity for resolution of enantiomeric compounds. 

Many other types of solid phase adsorbents, including those based on conventional and specialty materials like restricted access media (RAM), can increase analysis speed and improve assay performance. These types of materials, also known as internal reversed-phase packings, are especially useful for assaying target compounds in biological samples such as serum and plasma. They are chemically modified porous silicas that have hydrophilic external surfaces and restricted-access hydrophobic internal surfaces. The ratio of interior to external surface areas is large. Macromolecules such as proteins cannot enter the pores of the RAM (they are excluded from the hydrophobic internal surface) and they elute quickly through the column. However, the smaller analyte molecules that can enter the pores are retained via interactions with the hydrophobic bonded phase within... 

There is, however, one major problem with CO2 as a mobile phase and that is its low polarity. Thus only relatively non-polar analytes can be dissolved in CO2. Moreover, in columns packed with silica-based material there are always residual adsorptive sites. In reversed-phase HPLC the mobile phase deactivates these sites, but the CO2 is not polar enough to do that. As a consequence, the more polar analytes are adsorbed and these are then eluted as severely tailing peaks or are not eluted at all. It should be mentioned here that reports on more inert packings have been published (Li, Malik and Lee, 1994). There are some supercritical mobile phases other than CO2 that can be used, but those that are realistic to use are all non-polar. The only alternatives are the freons, of which chlorine-free freons are considered to be less harmful to the environment (Blackwell and Schallinger, 1994). 

The reaction coil is 20 cm of coiled stainless steel capillary tubing. The guard column (1.5 cm length, inside diameter) which protects the more expensive Cjg reversed-phase separating column (length = 30 cm, inside diameter = 3.9 mm) is packed with silica-based Cig material. Typical electrochemical detector cells which can be used are (i) Model TL-5 thin layer detector cell obtained from Bioanalytical Systems, (ii) Model EA 1096 wall jet detector cell obtained from Metrohm. 

The analysis demonstrates the elegant use of a very specific type of column packing. As a result, there is no sample preparation, so after the serum has been filtered or centrifuged, which is a precautionary measure to protect the apparatus, 10 p.1 of serum is injected directly on to the column. The separation obtained is shown in figure 13. The stationary phase, as described by Supelco, was a silica based material with a polymeric surface containing dispersive areas surrounded by a polar network. Small molecules can penetrate the polar network and interact with the dispersive areas and be retained, whereas the larger molecules, such as proteins, cannot reach the interactive surface and are thus rapidly eluted from the column. The chemical nature of the material is not clear, but it can be assumed that the dispersive surface where interaction with the small molecules can take place probably contains hydrocarbon chains like a reversed phase. 

The application of polymer monoliths in 2D separations, however, is very attractive in that polymer-based packing materials can provide a high performance, chemically stable stationary phase, and better recovery of biological molecules, namely proteins and peptides, even in comparison with C18 phases on silica particles with wide mesopores (Tanaka et al., 1990). Microchip fabrication for 2D HPLC has been disclosed in a recent patent, based on polymer monoliths (Corso et al., 2003). This separation system consists of stacked separation blocks, namely, the first block for ion exchange (strong cation exchange) and the second block for reversed-phase separation. This layered separation chip device also contains an electrospray interface microfabricated on chip (a polymer monolith/... 

Recent advances in column stationary phases are remarkable. High performance silica-based reversed-phase 3 to 5 jxm packing materials have been developed for biological sample separations... 

The silica gel-based column packings are the active materials of choice for polymer HPLC employing both exclusion and interaction retention mechanisms. These are either bare or bonded with various groups. C-18 alkyls and -CH2-CH2-CH2-NH2 groups are most popular for reversed-phase and normal-phase procedures of polymer HPLC employing the nonpolar and polar interactions, respectively. 

The factors that control separation and dispersion are quite different. The relative separation of two solutes is solely dependent on the nature and magnitude of the Interactions between each solute and the two phases. Thus, the relative movement of each solute band would appear to be Independent of column dimensions or particle geometry and be determined only by the choice of the stationary phase and the mobile phase. However, there is a caveat to this statement. It assumes that any exclusion properties of the stationary phase are not included in the term particle geometry. The pore size of the packing material can control retention directly and exclusively, as in exclusion chromatography or, indirectly, by controlling the access of the solute to the stationary phase in normal and reverse phase chromatography. As all stationary phases based on silica gel exhibit some exclusion properties, the ideal situation where the selective retention of two solutes is solely controlled by phase interactions is rarely met in practice. If the molecular size of the solutes differ, then the exclusion properties of the silica gel will always play some part in solute retention. 

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