No abstract

Recent developments in HPLC methods have focused on various strategies in order to increase the speed of analysis. One area of impressive growing is column technology. Today, analytical methods that propose the use of short columns packed with sub-2 μm particles installed in ultra high-pressure LC instruments are not uncommon. Another strategy consisted of heating thermally resistant columns to temperatures well above of 100°C in order to reduce eluent viscosities and, therefore, column backpressure. We discuss experimental conditions for achieving high-throughput analysis using standard instruments with a few simple modifications. The chromatographic performance of two particulated and a silica-based monolithic column operated at moderate temperatures and flow rates are compared. The monolithic column proved to be stable over several thousands column volumes at 60°C. More important, its resistance to mass transfer at this temperature was significantly reduced. Very fast separations of two different mixtures of pharmaceutical compounds, anti-inflammatory drugs and β-blockers, were achieved with the three columns at 60°C by using ACN/buffer at 5 mL/min. Excellent peak shapes of basic solutes and quite reasonable resolutions were achieved in very short analysis times with columns operated at temperatures moderately higher than the usual room temperature.

The prediction capability of the solvation parameter model in reverse-phase liquid chromatography at different methanol-water mobile phase compositions and temperatures was investigated. By using a carefully selected set of solutes, the training set, linear relationships were established through regression equations between the logarithm of the solute retention factor, logk, and different solute parameters. The coefficients obtained in the regressions were used to create a general retention model able to predict retention in an octadecylsilica stationary phase at any temperature and methanol-water composition. The validity of the model was evaluated by using a different set (the test set) of 30 solutes of very diverse chemical nature. Predictions of logk values were obtained at two different combinations of temperature and mobile phase composition by using two different procedures: (i) by calculating the coefficients through a mathematical linear relationship in which the mobile phase composition and temperature are involved; (ii) by using a general equation, obtained by considering the previous results, in which only the experimental values of temperature and mobile phase composition are required. Predicted logk values were critically compared with the experimental values. Excellent results were obtained considering the diversity of the test set.