A single step reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography separation of polar and non-polar lipids

•This paper reports a simple chromatographic system to analyze lipids.•With phenyl coated silica as stationary phase all tested lipid classes elute within 30 min.•A way to accurately predict retention times of specific lipid components is also presented.•The methodology can be applied to several detection systems, namely ELSD, CAD, ESI-MS and UV.

This paper reports a simple chromatographic system to separate lipids classes as well as their molecular species. By the use of phenyl coated silica as stationary phase in combination with a simple mobile phase consisting of methanol and water, all tested lipid classes elute within 30 min. Furthermore, a method to accurately predict retention times of specific lipid components for this type of chromatography is presented. Common detection systems were used, namely evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD), charged aerosol detection (CAD), electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and UV detection.