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• What is a supercritical
fluid? heat
– has properties intermediate
between a liquid and a gas
supercritical
– Defined by region P – T solid fluid
phase diagram critical P
– Phase boundary between liquid
liquid and gas disappears
Pressure
critical point
at critical point
– Demonstrated by heating gas
two phase system
– Fluid must operate above initial state
critical T and critical P
Temperature critical T
Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
• Mobile Phase
– Supercritical fluid
– Most common fluids are:
• 100% CO2 (31.3°C critical temp. + 71 bar critical temperature)
• Mixture of CO2 and polar modifier (e.g. methanol), where modifier
added to adjust retention
– Properties vs. gases and liquids
• densities a little below liquids (solute – solvent interactions matter,
unlike ideal gases)
• viscosities a little greater than gases – allowing minimal pressure
drop vs. liquids
• diffusion coefficients closer to but greater than liquids, minimizing
C-term broadening vs. liquids
– Properties generally result in efficient separations that can be
applied to a greater class of compounds than by GC
Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
• Stationary Phase
– Since carbon dioxide is non-polar, polar stationary
phase is most common
– Both OT columns (smaller diameters since diffusion
is slower than in GC) and packed columns can be
used
– Columns can be set up to take advantage of smaller
pressure drops of supercritical fluids vs. liquids of
using smaller particle sizes (or OT columns) as well
as longer column
Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
• Instrumentation
– Equipment is somewhat specialized since it requires:
• pumps to reach supercritical pressures
• a way to add polar modifiers
• heaters to keep temperatures supercritical
• a restrictor after the column or detector to ensure pressure
remains high
• all fittings must be able to handle higher pressures
– Gradients can be set up by density programming
– Both GC type (e.g. FID) and many HPLC detectors (e.g UV
detection) can be used with some modifications). However,
FID is limited to 100% CO2 mobile phase
– Fraction collection (which is popular) uses cyclones to trap
solids released upon degassing
– The combination of specific equipment requirements and
limited market has made instrumentation expensive
Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
• Applications
– Analyses where neither GC nor HPLC functions well (e.g.
polymers without chromophores – polyethylene glycol)
– Recent interest has been in high value preparative separations:
• SFC uses expensive packing material (e.g. chiral stationary
phases) more efficiently than HPLC
• SFC solvent is cheaper than HPLC
• Post column solvent removal occurs with chromatography (as
opposed to in additional step)
• Limitations
– Expensive equipment (partly a result of limited market)
– Limited mobile phases
Supercritical Fluid Chromatography
Questions
1. How is the lower viscosity of SFs an advantage over
liquids in terms of chromatography?
2. Why are smaller diameter OT columns used in SFC
than in GC?
3. A drug manufacturer currently is using preparative
HPLC to isolate a single enantiomer of a chiral
mixture. List two advantages and one disadvantage
in going to SFC.
4. SFC is being used with 98% CO2/2% methanol to
separate polyethylene glycols with a polar stationary
phase. The separation of different sized polymers is
good but the retention factors are somewhat high
causing the separation to take too long. What can be
changed to decrease the separation time?
Liquid Chromatography
Classification of Types
• Classification based on pressure:
– Low pressure (gravity based, preparative)
– Moderate pressure (pressure from compressed gases in “flash
chromatography” or from low pressure pumps, also mainly
preparative)
– High pressure (high performance or HPLC)
– Ultra-high pressure (UPLC)
• Classification based on separation mechanism:
– Normal-phase (polar stationary phase, less polar mobile phase)
– Reversed-phase (non-polar stationary phase, more polar mobile
phase)
– Size exclusion chromatography (separation of molecules based
on size)
– Ion exchange chromatography (exchange of ions)
– Other types (ligand exchange and affinity)
Liquid Chromatography
Stationary Phases – Packing Material Geometry
• No geometry comparable to
OT GC
• Packed Columns
– Irregularly shaped particles
(older technology)
• Larger A term Advantage: H ~ kdp
• Less robust due to particles breaking
– Spherically shaped particles Disadvantage: P = k/d2p
• Smaller particles: decrease H (constant column dimensions)
(smaller A and C terms), but
increase back pressure dp (μm) tR (min) N P (bar)
5 30 25,000 19
3 18 42,000 87
Ultra performance LC 1.5 9 83,000 700
(UPLC) for needed P
Liquid Chromatography
Stationary Phases – Packing Material Geometry
• Packed Columns (cont.)
Dense core
– Superficially porous spheres
• Reduces C term without
Porous outer shell
increasing P (much)
• Less sample capacity
• Monolithic Columns
– Single “web” of polymer
(usually silica based) rather
than separate particles
– Advantageous because of
high efficiency with relatively
low back pressure
Liquid Chromatography
Stationary Phases – Packing Material Composition
• Packing Material Composition
– Silica based packing material
– Most commonly used material (many advances tried first with
silica)
– Available unbonded (normal phase), a wide variety of bonded
phases and silica hydride (relatively new)
– Main disadvantages are stability of silica (in normal phase) and
of Si-OR bonds (limits pH to 2 to 8)
• Polymeric (all hydrocarbon) packing material
– Usually styrene-divinylbenzene
– Poorer performance (efficiency, maximum pressure)
– Common with ion-exchange and size exclusion
– “Bonded Phase” contains ion exchange sites
Liquid Chromatography
Stationary Phases – Packing Material Composition
• Other packing material
– Zirconia
• More temperature/solvent stable than silica
• Both with and without bonded phases
– Porous graphitic carbon
• non-bonded reversed phase (similar to phenyl groups)
• highly stable
– Silica – polymeric hybrid particles
• Silica core with polymer between silica and bonded phase
• Improves stability of silica (possible to run from pH 0 to 14)
Liquid Chromatography
Silica-Based Normal Phase
• Historically, normal phase HPLC was the first type
regularly used and the stationary phase was (uncoated,
non-bonded) silica
• Stationary phase = silica surface
• Silica surface is somewhat heterogeneous (can have Si-
OH groups, Si-O- groups, Si-O-Si groups, and adsorbed
water)
• Use has decreased due to replacement by bonded phase
• Main disadvantage is slow equilibration (especially with
regards to water) and requirement of consistent water%
in mobile phase
Liquid Chromatography
Silica-Based Normal Phase
• Mobile phases
– Normal phase requires mobile phases of low polarity
(to be opposite to stationary phase)
– Most common with hexane with polar additive
although wide variety of solvents possible (but only
low % water)
– Weak solvent = hexane (or other less polar solvent)
– Strong solvent = polar additive (e.g. 2-propanol)
– Increasing strong solvent decreases retention
Liquid Chromatography
Silica-Based Normal Phase
• Mobile Phase
– Other Factors in solvent selection:
• Selectivity (different solvents will have different
solvent – analyte interactions; best to choose
solvent that emphasizes analyte differences)
• Solvent viscosity (low viscosity means smaller back
pressure for given flow rate)
• Solvent miscibility
• Detector limitations (e.g. wavelength cut-offs for
UV detection)
• Compatibility with column packing and tubing
Liquid Chromatography
Silica-Based Normal Phase
• Advantages:
– Simpler stationary phase
– Useful for wide range of analyte polarities
• Disadvantages:
– Long stabilization times
– Retention time drifts
– Must control % water in solvents
Liquid Chromatography
Bonded Phases
• Most common on silica substrate but also
common with other substrates
• Bonded layer is stationary phase
• Common bonded phases
– Reversed phase:
• C18 (most common by far of all bonded phases)
• C8 (shorter alkyl chain)
• Phenyl (better retention of aromatic groups)
• Other groups (e.g. cholesterol)
– Normal phase or hydrophilic interaction (HILIC):
• Cyano (most stable)
• Diol (glycophase in text)
• Amino (least stable)
Liquid Chromatography
Bonded Phases
• Quality of column (particularly
(CH2)17CH3
for C18) depends on: Side group
End capped Si
Liquid Chromatography
C18 Phase
• Stationary Phase
– Very non-polar group; but base of C18 is polar (similar
in polarity to octanol)
– Some columns use imbedded polar groups
• Mobile Phase
– Polar mobile phase needed
– Most often water with polar additive (acetonitrile,
methanol, and tetrahydrofuran (THF) most common)
– Water is weaker solvent, organic modifier is stronger
solvent
– Except for columns with imbedded polar groups,
minimum % organic is 10% (needed to “wet” C18
phase)
Liquid Chromatography
Polar Bonded Phase
• Groups like –CN (cyano) provide separations similar to
unbonded silica but reach equilibrium faster and have
more consistent chromatograms
• Hydrophillic interaction chromatography (HILIC) refers to
polar stationary phase with water present in mobile
phase (usually in small amounts)
– The mechanism in HILIC is somewhat different because the
stationary phase has a higher % water (due to strong attraction
to polar stationary phase) than the mobile phase.
– Analyte interaction can occur with stationary phase or with
associated water
Note: Penetration of mobile phase into stationary phase can also
occur to some extent with other bonded phases (even with C18),
especially with stronger solvents
Liquid Chromatography
Bonded Phases
• Advantages:
– Faster equilibration (vs. silica)
– Absorption vs. adsorption (less tailing)
– Greater stationary phase volume
• Disadvantages:
– Often have reduced range of analyte polarities (very
polar analytes are very weakly retained by C18)
– Column bleed (if bonded layer starts degrading)
Liquid Chromatography
Gradient Elutions
• Similar to temperature
programming in GC Elution of glucose oligosaccharides: glucose
• Program increases % strong (monomer) to maltoheptaose (7 units)
solvent during run
• Example for HILIC (Normal Phase)
HPLC to right
• Advantageous when wide variety
of analyte polarities (plus peak
width and S/N advantages)
• Disadvantages: Isocratic run (~62% ACN/38% water)
– see those mentioned for GC plus
– Additionally column equilibration
takes time (gradient run took
longer when including
equilibration time)
– Requires more equipment
http://www.phenomenex.com/cms400min/litlib/brands/asahipakgfcolumns.pdf
Liquid Chromatography
Ion Exchange Chromatography (IC)
• Stationary phase is made of ionic groups attached to polymeric
support
• Ionic groups have opposite charge of solute ions being separated
(anion exchange requires cationic groups and cations require
anionic groups)
• Anion exchange can be “strong” –NR3+ (permanent charge) or
“weak”, -NH3+ (charged at low pH)
• Cation exchange also uses permanently charged (e.g. –SO3-) or
groups charged at higher pH ( –CO2-)
• Intermolecular forces are very strong (so strong that without an
exchanging ion, K is impractically large)
• Mobile phase is aqueous buffer (cations or anions needed to
exchange with those on column)
• Strong eluents are higher concentrations and/or more strongly
bound ions
Liquid Chromatography
IC
Separation of Ions
• Strength of ion-ion interaction Cl- SO4=
depends on: A -
A-
– Charge (stronger for more highly
charged) A-
– Ion size (smaller hydrated size A-
interacts more strongly)
• Cation ranking: A-
Li+ (weak) < H+ < NH4+ < Mg2+ < Ca2+
• Anion ranking: A-
F- (weak) < OH- < Cl- < NO3- < SO42-
A-
• pH also affects ion forms and
elution
Note: cartoon ignores effect of mobile phase
counter ions
Liquid Chromatography
Other Stationary Phases
• Ligand Exchange (e.g. sugar
separation) HO-R
SO3-
– retention based on ligand sticking
to metal (or visa-versa) Ca2+
ionized to be retained
– pH is adjusted by adding
buffer in water/organic retained unretained
modifier
– pH at pKa means retention
factor about half of non-
+
NHNH
2 3 -
ionized acid retention time O
O
– In ion-exchange S
be in range needed to
produce ions
– In ion-pairing RP-HPLC, an Benzyl amine Ion pair reagent = pentane
(conj.
ion-pairing reagent is added sulfonic acid (sodium salt)
acid pKa = 9.35)
Non-ionized only at
high pH
Liquid Chromatography
Instrumentation – Mobile Phase Delivery
• Solvent Flow
– HPLC requires high pressures and thus
specific pumps
– The solvent also needs low levels of dissolved
gases for pumps to function
– For the simplest “dedicated” HPLC, a single
solvent reservoir and pump is needed
– For gradients and/or more method
development work, switching between
different solvents is needed
Liquid Chromatography
Instrumentation – Mobile Phase Delivery
• Pumps Check valves InOut
Stroke
Stroke
– Most pumps use two piston closed
open
heads 180º out of phase to
reduce pressure open
closed
fluctuations
– Solvents go into and out of
piston heads through one-
way “check valves”
– Exit check valve closes on
“in” stroke and entrance
check valve closes on “out”
stroke
pistons
Liquid Chromatography
Instrumentation – Mobile Phase Delivery
• Example of pump with 16000
14000
12000
Signal (uV)
8000
valves
6000
4000
2000
0
• Fluctuation in -2000
7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10
100
• Changes to retention
Signal (uV)
0
-200
-300
8 8.2 8.4 8.6 8.8 9 9.2
Time (min)