IntroductionToday, RP-HPLC employing a hydrocarboneous bonded stationary phase, typically an n-octadecyl silanized packing surface with a hydro-organic mobile phase, has been quite popular for the separation of a wide variety of mixtures. The RP-HPLC separation processes are thought to be controlled by the so-called hydrophobic interaction 1 at work on phasepartitioning event of solute molecules between the mobile and stationary phases. Because the retention of solutes depends on the solute-solvent interaction, 2,3 manipulation of the organicsolvent content in the mobile phase is reasonably important. In addition, the stationary phase also plays a highly active role in chromatographic processes. It has been speculated that as the content of an organic solvent in a mobile phase decreases, the bending and tangling of alkyl chains on the particle surface take place through a hydrophobic interaction, 4 which doubtless reduces the separation efficiency. Modifiers in the mobile phase, which are employed for the benefit of separation improvement, strongly affect RP-HPLC processes in two ways: partitioning of the solutes and solvation of the stationary phase.The interaction between the nonpolar moiety of a molecule and water, the so-called hydrophobic interaction, is an important factor in many physicochemical processes: for example, protein denaturation, 5-7 surfactant micellization and absorption. 8 More basically, the slight solubility of hydrocarbon liquids in water is easy to observe but unexpectedly difficult to explain. 9 It is generally accepted that the hydrophobic interaction is due to an increased "ordering" or "structuring" of water molecules in the close vicinity of a nonpolar solute.
10Thus a very common conclusion is that the small solubility of nonpolar solutes in water results from this entropy-unfavorable structuring processes. Here, we define an additive which destroys the structure of pure water as a "water structure breaker", 11 such as urea and guanidium chloride (GuCl). In fact, that the longrange order inherent in water solvent is destroyed in urea solution has been demonstrated using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. 12 Urea and GuCl are also well-known as powerful protein denaturants. [13][14][15][16] In addition, the solubilities of some hydrocarbons in water increase in the presence of urea. 11,17 An explanation for this phenomenon is that the breakup of a strengthened water structure ("iceberg" structure 18 ) around the nonpolar solutes is quite readily achieved by the "hydrophobic interaction breakers". So far, most investigations of water structure-breaking agents have been focused on their effects on some physicochemical phenomena: micelle formation, 19,20 self-association of dyes, 21 protein denaturation, etc. In contrast, there have been few studies that utilized water structure-breaking agents in separation techniques. Urea has often been used only as a denaturant or an unfolding agent in the hydrophobic interaction chromatography of protein. Organic solvent-free mobile-phase sy...