Performance of different C18 columns in reversed-phase liquid chromatography with hydro-organic and micellar-organic mobile phases

• C18 columns show significant difference in behaviour for basic compounds.
• SDS monomers cover the stationary phase reducing the silanol effect.
• Evaluation of column performance: analysis time, selectivity and peak shape.
• The diversity of behaviours of eight C18 columns increases with SDS.
• Implementation of a micellar-organic procedure will depend on the selected column.

Column selection in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) can become a challenge if the target compounds interact with the silica-based packing. One of such interactions is the attraction of cationic solutes to the free silanols in silica-based columns, which is a slow sorption–desorption interaction process that gives rise to tailed and broad peaks. The effect of silanols is minimised by the addition of a competing agent in the mobile phase, such as the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). In micellar-organic RPLC, the adsorption of an approximately fixed amount of SDS monomers gives rise to a stable modified stationary phase, with properties remarkably different from those of the underlying bonded phase. The chromatographic behaviour (in terms of selectivity, analysis time and peak shape) of eight C18 columns in the analysis of weakly acidic phenols and basic β-blockers was examined with hydro-organic and micellar-organic mobile phases. The behaviour of the columns differed significantly when the cationic basic drugs were eluted with hydro-organic mobile phases. With micellar-organic mobile phases, the adsorption of surfactant, instead of making the columns similar, gave rise to a greater diversity of behaviours (especially in terms of selectivity and analysis time), for both groups of phenols and β-blockers, which should be explained by the residual effect of the underlying bonded stationary phase and the different amount of surfactant covering the packing. Therefore, the implementation of a micellar-organic procedure in RPLC will depend significantly on the selected type of C18 column.