Retention behavior of oligomer surfactants on polyethylene‐coated zirconia HPLC column

Abstract

The retention behaviour of nonylphenyl ethylene oxide oligomer surfactants was determined on polyethylene-coated zirconia high-performance liquid Chromatographic (HPLC) support using methanol-water mixtures as eluents. The logarithm of the capacity factor decreased linearly with increasing concentration of methanol in the eluent proving the regular retention behaviour of the HPLC system. The retention capacity of the polyethylene-coated zirconia was lower than that of traditional octadecylsilica stationary phase. The retention of nonionic surfactants increased with increasing number of ethylene oxide groups in the molecule. It was established that polyethylenecoated zirconia support can be successfully used for the analysis on nonionic surfactants.