The Effect of Binary Solvent Composition and Polarity on Separations in Reversed Phase Thin Layer and High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

The effect of the solvent's composition and polarity on separation in reversed phase thin layer and high performance liquid chromatography is discussed. These results show that retention times cannot be predicted merely from the polarity of the binary mobile phase. Although organic modifiers with the same physico-chemical properties and from the same solvent group were used, the retention times obtained using binary mobile phases having the same polarity, were different. It was also observed that normal chain carbon alcohols gave retention times different from those with a branched chain (n-propanol vs. iso-propanol), and the longer the alcohol chain the higher the R_f value. The results also show that not only the organic modifier used is important but the solute mixture used.