Effect of increasing concentration of ammonium acetate as an additive in supercritical fluid chromatography using CO2-methanol mobile phase.

The effects of increasing concentrations of ammonium acetate additive in supercritical fluid chromatography were studied on silica, 2-ethyl-pyridine and endcapped 2-ethyl-pyridine stationary phases. The study involved the addition of increasing concentrations of the ammonium acetate either in the mobile phase modifier (methanol) or in the sample solvent. The effects of ammonium acetate on retention and peak shape of the analytes were evaluated. Compounds that exhibited satisfactory chromatographic behaviour in the absence of the additive were virtually unaffected by its presence in the mobile phase or sample solvent. Nevertheless, compounds that exhibited late elution and strongly tailing peak shapes when pure methanol was used showed dramatically improved chromatographic behaviour in the presence of the additive. Shorter retention was observed not only when the modifier was introduced in the mobile phase but also when it was in the sample solvent.

Prediction of retention for sulfonamides in supercritical fluid chromatography.

Properties-retention studies were undertaken on a test library of sulfonamides using supercritical fluid chromatography with CO(2)-MeOH mobile phases (in the presence or absence of additive) and a 2-ethyl-pyridyl column. Taking a restricted range of retention ratios, k (10.98). From these relationships, the different retention characteristics of the analytes were calculated. Literature studies of quantitative structure-retention relationships (QSRR) showed that these characteristics can be correlated with simple molecular descriptors to derive equations predicting the retention behaviour of new compounds. Measured retention characteristics were found to correlate with total dipole moment, mu, molecular surface area, A, and the electronic charge on the most negatively charged atom, delta(min). The correlation of chromatographic measurements with calculated molecular descriptors may allow the prediction of the retention behaviour for an unknown compound provided its properties are known.