Polar silica-based stationary phases. Part II- Neutral silica stationary phases with surface bound maltose and sorbitol for hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography

- Two polar silica-based column were developed and characterized for HILIC by HPLC.
- The two new stationary phases are neutral with surface coated maltose or sorbitol.
- The two sugar coated silica columns provided different selectivity toward polar solutes.
- The maltose silica columns exhibited higher retention and efficiency than the sorbitol coated silica columns.
- Both columns yielded reproducible separations.

Two neutral polyhydroxylated silica bonded stationary phases, namely maltose-silica (MALT-silica) and sorbitol-silica (SOR-silica), have been introduced and chromatographically characterized in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) for a wide range of polar compounds. The bonding of the maltose and sorbitol to the silica surface was brought about by first converting bare silica to an epoxy-activated silica surface via reaction with γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS) followed by attaching maltose and sorbitol to the epoxy surface in the presence of the Lewis acid catalyst BF3.ethereate. Both silica based columns offered the expected retention characteristics usually encountered for neutral polar surface. The retention mechanism is majorly based on solute' differential partitioning between an organic rich hydro-organic mobile phase (e.g., ACN rich mobile phase) and an adsorbed water layer on the surface of the stationary phase although additional hydrogen bonding was also responsible in some cases for solute retention. The MALT-silica column proved to be more hydrophilic and offered higher retention, separation efficiency and resolution than the SOR-silica column among the tested polar solutes such as derivatized mono- and oligosaccharides, weak phenolic acids, cyclic nucleotide monophosphate and nucleotide-5′-monophosphates, and weak bases, e.g., nucleobases and nucleosides.