Dual Retention Mechanism in Two-Dimensional LC Separations of Barbiturates, Sulfonamides, Nucleic Bases and Nucleosides on Polymethacrylate Zwitterionic Monolithic Micro-Columns

Abstract

In-house prepared zwitterionic polymethacrylate micro-columns using in situ polymerization of N,N-dimethyl-N-metacryloxyethyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium betaine (MEDSA) functional monomer with bisphenol A glycerolate dimethacrylate (BIGDMA) cross-linker provided excellent stability and reproducibility of preparation and separation efficiency of 60,000–70,000 theoretical plates m⁻¹ for small molecules under isocratic conditions. The column showed a dual retention mechanism, reversed-phase (RP) in highly aqueous mobile phases and aqueous normal-phase (HILIC) in acetonitrile-rich mobile phases. This property can be used to obtain complementary separation and combined information on the sample from repeated injections of a sample on a single column, in different mobile phases characteristic for the HILIC and for the RP modes, which is in fact a form of offline two-dimensional chromatography on a single column. The dual retention mechanism has been observed with a variety of columns, however, often with impractically narrow retention range in one of the two modes. To take full advantage from the combined single-column RP–HILIC experiments, the column should provide a sufficiently broad mobile phase interval both in the RP and in the HILIC mode. The BIGDMA-MEDSA micro-columns proved suitable earlier for the combined RP–HILIC separations of some phenolic compounds and flavonoids. In the present work, we investigated the effects of the mobile phase composition on the retention of a variety of polar compounds over full retention range of buffered aqueous acetonitrile mobile phases, to find potentially useful HILIC and RP retention ranges for barbiturates, sulfonamides, nucleosides and nucleic bases. In the HILIC mode, proton donor–acceptor interactions show a major effect on retention and selectivity of separation, whereas the size of the non-polar hydrocarbon part of the sample molecule is the most important factor in the water-rich mobile phases. The sample structure strongly affects the composition of aqueous–organic mobile phases at which the transition between the two retention modes occurs. Of the investigated sample types, barbiturates show better separation under reversed-phase conditions, whereas nucleosides and nucleic bases in the HILIC mode. Aromatic carboxylic acids and sulfonamides can be separated either in the reversed phase or under HILIC conditions, the two separation modes showing complementary selectivity of separation.