Amino acid analysis using core–shell particle column

In this study, the separation efficiency of a core–shell particle column was compared with particle-packed and monolithic silica columns, which showed that the core–shell particle column had a smaller theoretical plate height and that its separation efficiency was not affected significantly by the increase in flow rate. A fast HPLC method using a core–shell particle column was developed for the determination of amino acids. 4-Fluoro-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (NBD-F) was used as a fluorescence derivatization reagent for amino acids, followed by separation on a core–shell Kinetex C18 column. The analysis time for 21 NBD-amino acids was within 7 min, which was faster than that in our previous studies with conventional particle-packed columns or monolithic silica columns. The linearities of the calibration curves for all the amino acids were found to be good over a range of injection amounts from 40 fmol to 40 pmol. The accuracies for the amino acid determinations were 90.9–107%. The method was proved to have potential for the fast determination of amino acids in biological samples.

► The minimum theoretical plate height of core–shell particle column reached 5.1 μm.
► The analysis of NBD-amino acids was performed within 7 min with core–shell particle column.
► The developed method was proved to be valid for analyzing biological sample.