Preparation and chromatographic evaluation of a cysteine-bonded zwitterionic hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography stationary phase

A cysteine-bonded zwitterionic hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) stationary phase (Click TE-Cys) was prepared based on the “thiol-ene” click chemistry. The Click TE-Cys material was characterized by solid state 13C cross polarization/magic-angle spinning (CP/MAS) NMR and elemental analysis. The dynamic evaluation for cytosine, cytidine and orotic acid was performed using Van Deemter plots. The plate height values were no more than 24 μm for the flow rate between 0.5 and 5.4 mm s−1 (0.3–3.5 mL min−1), which proved the excellent separation efficiency of Click TE-Cys stationary phase. The influences of the content of water, concentration of salt and pH of the buffer solution on the retention of model compounds were investigated. The results demonstrated that the separation of polar analytes was dominated by the partitioning mechanism, while the contribution of electrostatic interaction was minor. The thermodynamic characteristic of Click TE-Cys stationary phase was also studied according to van’t Hoff plot. An exothermic process for transferring analytes from the mobile phase to the stationary phase was observed and a linear relationship for ln k and 1/T was achieved, indicating no change of retention mechanism within the measured temperature range. Besides, the zwitterionic stationary phase exhibited good stability. Considering the high hydrophilicity of Click TE-Cys stationary phase, the application in the separation of protein tryptic digests was carried out using hydrophilic interaction chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HILIC–ESI-MS). More peaks were adequately resolved on the Click TE-Cys column comparing with that on the TSK Amide-80 column. In addition, the orthogonality between HILIC and RPLC system was investigated utilizing geometric approach. The XTerra MS C18 and Click TE-Cys column displayed great difference in separation selectivity, with the orthogonality reaching 88.0%. On the other hand, the orthogonality between Click TE-Cys and TSK Amide-80 system was 21.4%, i.e. the selectivity was similar but slightly different from each other. The successful separation of protein digests indicated the great potential of Click TE-Cys stationary phase in the separation of complex samples and applicability in two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC).