Reversed phase liquid chromatography of alkyl-imidazolium ionic liquids

Eleven 1-alkyl-3-methyl imidazolium ionic liquid (IL) salts were analyzed in reversed phase mode with a Kromasil C18 column. The mobile phases were water-rich acetonitrile solutions (water content ≥70%, v/v) without any added salts. It is shown that it is possible to separate different ILs sharing the same cation and differing by the anion when salt-free mobile phases are used. When a buffer, acetate or phosphate salt, or any salt, such as sodium chloride or sodium tetrafluorobarate, is added to the mobile phase, the ILs differing only by their anions cannot be separated. ILs with different alkyl chains in the imidazolium cation are separated by mobile phases with or without added salts following a hydrophobic interaction behavior: log k is proportional to nC, the carbon number of the alkyl chain. Important differences in ion/stationary phase interactions are observed depending on the ionic content of the mobile phase. With salt-free mobile phases, the IL/C18 stationary phase interactions correspond to concave isotherms associated with fronting peaks for all ILs. With mobile phase containing 0.01 M of salt, tailing IL peaks correspond to convex adsorption isotherms. Also, the IL retention factor depends on the concentration and nature of the added salt. Hexafluorophosphate chaotropic anions can adsorb on the Kromasil C18 surface dramatically increasing the imidazolium cation retention factors.