An assessment of the retention behaviour of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on reversed phase stationary phases: Selectivity and retention on C18 and phenyl-type surfaces

• Published in: Journal of Chromatography A Vol. 1126; no. 1; pp. 283 - 297
• Main Authors: Kayillo, Sindy, Dennis, Gary R., Shalliker, R. Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 08.09.2006; Elsevier
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Benzene Derivatives - chemistry; Chemistry; Chromatographic methods and physical methods associated with chromatography; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - instrumentation; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Dimethylpolysiloxanes - chemistry; Exact sciences and technology; HPLC; Models, Molecular; Other chromatographic methods; PAHs; Phenyl-type stationary phases; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - chemistry; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - isolation & purification; Retention behaviour; Phenyl-type stationary phases; PAHs; HPLC; Retention behaviour; Hydrocarbon; Chromatographic retention; HPLC chromatography; Selectivity; Polycyclic aromatic compound; Modeling; Reversed phase chromatography; Molecular model; Bonded stationary phase
• ISSN: 0021-9673
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chroma.2006.04.054

In this manuscript the retention and selectivity of a set of linear and non-linear PAHs were evaluated on five different reversed-phase columns. These phases included C18 and C18 Aqua stationary phases, as well as three phenyl phases: Propyl-phenyl, Synergi polar-RP and Cosmosil 5PBB phase. Overall, the results revealed that the phenyl-type columns offered better separation performance for the linear PAHs, while the separation of the structural isomer PAHs was enhanced on the C18 columns. The Propyl-phenyl column was found to have the highest molecular-stationary phase interactions, as evidenced by the greatest rate of change in ‘ S’ (0.71) as a function of the molecular weight in the PAH homologous series, despite having the lowest surface coverage (3% carbon load) (where S is the slope of a plot of log k versus the solvent composition). In contrast, the C18 Aqua column, having the highest surface coverage (15% carbon load) was found to have the second lowest molecular-stationary phase interactions (rate of change in S = 0.61). Interestingly, the Synergi polar-RP column, which also is a phenyl stationary phase behaved more ‘C18-like’ than ‘phenyl-like’ in many of the tests undertaken. This is probably not unexpected since all five phases were reversed phase.