Abstract Title: | Investigating the potential for improved temperature responsive separations in liquid chromatography |
Abstract Type: | Seminar |
Session Choice: | Green Separations |
Presenter Name: | Mr Mathijs Baert |
Co-authors: | Mr Steven Martens Prof Filip Du Prez Prof Frederic Lynen |
Company/Organisation: | Ghent University |
Country: | Belgium |
Abstract Information :
The use of polymer derived stationary phases in liquid chromatography, either as a
replacement for or as a hybrid silica based stationary phase, has been expanding in last
decades. An interesting discovery in this field has been the development of temperature
responsive stationary phases, wherein a temperature responsive polymer is used to achieve
separation.1 This type of polymer is an "intelligent material", as it is able to respond to a
small variation in its surroundings with a sharp change in its physical properties. In the
case of temperature responsive polymers, they possess a unique characteristic that allows
them to change their water solubility based on changes in the ambient temperature. More
specifically they show a decrease in polarity with increasing temperature. Implementing
this polymer into a bonded-phase for liquid chromatography, allows for the control of the
column polarity through control of the column temperature. This introduces the possibility
to perform reversed phase like liquid chromatography in pure water, whereby the polarity
is controlled through temperature, therefore eliminating the need for any organic
modifiers.
Although successful implementation of this technique has already been demonstrated for
several applications, the technique is still in its developmental stage. As a result, this
strategy has not yet reached its full potential and is still being plagued by several
shortcomings. Examples of this are, the often too low polymer coupling efficiencies
resulting in low carbon loading, the questionable stability of the silica base at elevated
temperature in fully aqueous conditions, or the less than optimal peak capacities which
have been reached thus far.
In this contribution strategies are described to increase overall performance of
temperature responsive columns in purely aqueous HPLC. This includes the development of
improved coupling reactions between the polymers and the silica support, the study of
alternative supporting materials and the development of temperature responsive
stationary phases allowing for higher column efficiencies. Next to this, the applicability and
potential of this promising separation mode will be illustrated through a number of (1D and
2D) applications.