title: Impact of the nature and composition of the mobile phase on the mass transfer mechanism in chiral reversed phase liquid chromatography. Application to the minimization of the solvent cost in chiral separations.
abstract: The mechanism of mass transfer was studied on a cellulose-based chiral stationary phase (CSP, Lux Cellulose-1) using aqueous mixtures of acetonitrile (50/50-90/10, v/v) or methanol (90/10 and 100/0, v/v) as the mobile phase. An experimental protocol validated in RPLC and HILIC chromatography and recently extended to chiral RPLC was applied. The five mass-transfer contributions (longitudinal diffusion, short-range and long-range eddy dispersion, solid-liquid mass transfer resistances due to finite intra-particle diffusivity and slow adsorption-desorption) to the reduced height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP) were measured. The experimental results show that the adsorption rate constants kads of trans-stilbene enantiomers onto the CSP are three times larger with acetonitrile than with methanol as the organic modifier. This is correlated to the decrease of enantioselectivity from 1.4 (in methanol) to only 1.1 (in acetonitrile). The amount of solvent needed to achieve a separation factor of exactly 2.0 was determined. This showed that analysis cost could be reduced seven times by selecting pure methanol as the eluent for a 5cm long column rather than an acetonitrile-water mixture for a longer (20-45cm) column.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1600, USA.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gritti
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1600, USA. Electronic address: guiochon@utk.edu.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guiochon
mesh_terms: D000097:Acetonitriles / Q000191:economics; D000327:Adsorption; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry; D056148:Chromatography, Reverse-Phase / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D003363:Cost Control; D004058:Diffusion; D000432:Methanol / Q000191:economics; D008970:Molecular Weight; D012997:Solvents; D013237:Stereoisomerism; D013267:Stilbenes / Q000032:analysis; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D000097:Acetonitriles; D012997:Solvents; D013267:Stilbenes; D014867:Water; D002482:Cellulose; D000432:Methanol; C032159:acetonitrile
keywords: Chiral separation; Lux 5μm Cellulose-1; Mass transfer resistance; Mobile phase composition; Solvent cost minimization; trans-Stilbene