Reversed-phase substance

Reversed-phase columns are used to separate polar substances. Although in LC the stationary phase is a solid, it is necessary to bear in mind that there may be a thin film of liquid (e.g water) held on its surface, and this film will modify the behavior of sample components equilibrating between the mobile and stationary phases. A textbook on LC should be consulted for deeper discussion on such aspects. 

Except for the high molecular weight range, nearly all substances can be separated by reversed-phase (RP) HPLC. The many different separation mechanisms in RP HPLC, based on hydi ophobic, hydi ophilic and ion-pairing interactions, and size exclusion effects together with the availability of a lai ge number of high quality stationary phases, explain its great populai ity. At present approximately 90% of all HPLC separations are carried out by reversed-phase mode of HPLC, and an estimated 800 different stationai y phases for RP HPLC are manufactured worldwide. 

MLC enables to analyse drugs and active phamiaceutical substances without using special column and lai ge quantity of organic solvents. So, from the point of view of pharmaceutical analysis ecology and green chemistry conception, assay with MLC using will be better than conventional reversed-phase chromatography. 

Silica gel, per se, is not so frequently used in LC as the reversed phases or the bonded phases, because silica separates substances largely by polar interactions with the silanol groups on the silica surface. In contrast, the reversed and bonded phases separate material largely by interactions with the dispersive components of the solute. As the dispersive character of substances, in general, vary more subtly than does their polar character, the reversed and bonded phases are usually preferred. In addition, silica has a significant solubility in many solvents, particularly aqueous solvents and, thus, silica columns can be less stable than those packed with bonded phases. The analytical procedure can be a little more complex and costly with silica gel columns as, in general, a wider variety of more expensive solvents are required. Reversed and bonded phases utilize blended solvents such as hexane/ethanol, methanol/water or acetonitrile/water mixtures as the mobile phase and, consequently, are considerably more economical. Nevertheless, silica gel has certain areas of application for which it is particularly useful and is very effective for separating polarizable substances such as the polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and substances... 

J. V. Posluszny and R. Weinberger, Determination of dmg substances in biological fluids by direct injection multidimensional liquid cliromatography with a micellar cleanup and reversed-phase cliromatography , Awa/. Chem. 60 1953-1958(1988). 

Purification of the activation products (PMs). The methylamine activation product dissolved in methanol is purified by chromatography, first on a column of silica gel using a mixed solvent of chloroform/ethanol, followed by reversed-phase HPLC on a column of divinylbenzene resin (such as Jordi Reversed-Phase and Hamilton PRP-1) using various solvent systems suitable for the target substance (for example, acetonitrile/water containing 0.15% acetic acid). 

A method offering the possibility for the separation, identification, and determination of alkyl- and alkylphenol ether carboxylates, even in mixtures with other nonionic and amphoteric substances, is carried out by HPLC using a reverse phase RP18 column and a mixture of methanol, water, and acetonitrile with the addition of an ion-pairing reagent as mobile phase working under isocratic conditions [242]. 

The ionic or polar substances can be seperated without any reaction on specially treated chromatographic columns and detected refractometrically. This is necessary because alkyl sulfosuccinates show only small absorption in the UV-visible region no sensitive photometric detection can be obtained. Separation problems can arise when common steel columns filled with reverse phase material (or sometimes silica gel) are used. This problem can be solved by adding a suitable counterion (e.g., tetrabutylammonium) to the mobile phase ( ion pair chromatography ). This way it is possible to get good separation performance. For an explanation of separation mechanism see Ref. 65-67. A broad review of the whole method and its possibilities in use is given in an excellent monograph [68]. 

To retain solutes selectively by dispersive interactions, the stationary phase must contain no polar or ionic substances, but only hydrocarbon-type materials such as the reverse-bonded phases, now so popular in LC. Reiterating the previous argument, to ensure that dispersive selectivity dominates in the stationary phase, and dispersive interactions in the mobile phase are minimized, the mobile phase must now be strongly polar. Hence the use of methanol-water and acetonitrile-water mixtures as mobile phases in reverse-phase chromatography systems. An example of the separation of some antimicrobial agents on Partisil ODS 3, particle diameter 5p is shown in figure 5. 

As the solvent mixture also contained 225 mg of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide pentahydrate per liter at a high water content (75%), the surface of the reverse phase would have been largely covered with the tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide pentahydrate. This would have acted as an adsorbed ion exchange stationary phase. It is clear that the free acids, salicylic acid, acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) and benzoic acid were retained largely by ionic interactions with adsorbed basic ion exchanger and partly by dispersive interactions with the exposed reversed phase. The acetaminophen and the caffeine, on the other hand, being unionized substances, were retained only by dispersive interactions with the exposed reversed phase. 

Liquid samples might appear to be easier to prepare for LC analysis than solids, particularly if the compounds of interest are present in high concentration. In some cases this may be true and the first example given below requires virtually no sample preparation whatever. The second example, however, requires more involved treatment and when analyzing protein mixtures, the procedure can become very complex indeed involving extraction, centrifugation and fractional precipitation on reversed phases. In general, however, liquid samples become more difficult to prepare when the substances are present at very low concentrations. 

Complete resolution was not achieved due to the carryover of interfering substances which frequently occurs when separating the components of biological samples. The column carried a reverse phase, but as the mobile phase contained low concentrations of lauryl sulfate, some would have adsorbed on the surface of the stationary phase and significantly modified its interacting properties. The retention mechanism is likely to have involved both ionic interactions with the adsorbed ion exchanger together with dispersive interactions with any exposed areas of the reverse phase. 

The mobile phases that are most effective for use with reverse phases are aqueous mixtures of methanol or acetonitrile and for subtle adjustments, ternary mixtures of water, methanol and acetonitrile or tetrahydrofuran can be used. The greater the water content the more the solutes with dispersive groups will be retained and in fact, in pure water, many substances are irreversibly held on a reverse phase. As already discussed, this characteristic make reverse phases very useful for solute extraction and concentration from aqueous solutions prior to analysis. 

Chapter 3 through Chapter 8 deal with the basic aspects of the practical uses of PLC. Chapter 3 describes sorbent materials and precoated layers for normal or straight phase (adsorption) chromatography (silica gel and aluminum oxide 60) and partition chromatography (silica gel, aluminum oxide 150, and cellulose), and precoated layers for reversed-phase chromatography (RP-18 or C-18). Properties of the bulk sorbents and precoated layers, a survey of commercial products, and examples of substance classes that can be separated are given. 

Not only in HPLC, but also in modem thin-layer chromatography, the application of reversed-phase stationary phases becomes increasingly important. The advantage of the hydrophobic layers in comparison with the polar, surface-active stationary phases is the additional selectivity and a reduced hkehhood of decomposition of sensitive substances. 

The reversed-phase layers in planar chromatography can be used for the separation of a large variety of substances in PLC such as ... 

Pan et al. [82] used a reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of miconazole nitrate and its related substances. 

Identification and quantification of natural dyes need high performance analytical techniques, appropriate for the analysis of materials of complicated matrices containing a small amount of coloured substances. This requirement perfectly fits coupling of modern separation modules (usually high performance liquid chromatography in reversed phase mode, RPLC, but also capillary electrophoresis, CE) with selective detection units (mainly mass spectrometer). 

Hamisch, M., Mockel, H.J., Schulze, G. (1983) Relationship between log Pow shake-flask values and capacity factors derived from reversed-phase HPLC for n-alkylbenzenes and some OECD reference substances. J. Chromatogr. 282, 315-332. 

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