High performance liquid chromatography is a powerful analytical technique employed to separate analyte mixtures. Since, biomedical sample mixtures contain a very diverse range of compounds; one chromatographic mode is usually unable to separate all components of the mixture. Therefore, there is an increasing need for faster and efficient separations with a broad range of selectivity. To attain better selectivity and efficient separation, and to improve the versatility of the chromatographic column, a new way of preparation of multifunctional stationary phases, suitable for use in multiple chromatographic separation modes, is described.
The preparation of multifunctional stationary phases takes advantage of Schiff base chemistry in two different synthetic routes. The first route involves reductive coupling of amino bonded silica with aldehyde containing ligands. The coupling of aldehyde bonded silica with amine containing ligands is the other reaction route. Aldehyde terminated silica is a versatile reactive platform that enables the synthesis of a wide range of stationary phases by attaching amine containing ligands that have diverse functionality. Here the preparation of aldehyde terminated silica was achieved by bonding aldehyde silane to the silica surface. Preparation of aldehyde silane is a novel approach and a successful synthetic scheme of making acetalated aromatic aldehyde silane (AAS- Aldehyde group in the silane has been protected by acetalation) and aromatic aldehyde silane (AS) is invented.
The studies confirmed that the synthesized multifunctional chromatographic stationary phases were capable of operating in ion exchange mode, reversed phase mode and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatographic mode. The studies further concluded that those surfaces have good selectivity for the separation of small polar and charge molecules.
The application of the well established Schiff base reaction allowed the incorporation 2H to the bonded phases and is utilized to study the motional dynamics of the bonded ligands in the surface at different temperatures in the presence of a broad range of solvent systems by using 2H wide line NMR spectroscopy. The investigation provides information about the motional dynamic heterogeneity of the bonded ligands, which reflects the existence of surface heterogeneity of the surface.