HPLC - Principles

The basic operating principle of HPLC is to force the analyte through a column of the stationary phase (usually a tube packed with small round particles with a certain surface chemistry) by pumping a liquid (mobile phase) at high pressure through the column. The sample to be analyzed is introduced in small volume to the stream of mobile phase and is retarded by specific chemical or physical interactions with the stationary phase as it traverses the length of the column. The amount of retardation depends on the nature of the analyte, stationary phase and mobile phase composition. The time at which a specific analyte elutes (comes out of the end of the column) is called the retention time and is considered a reasonably unique identifying characteristic of a given analyte. The use of pressure increases the linear velocity (speed) giving the components less time to diffuse within the column, leading to improved resolution in the resulting chromatogram. Common solvents used include any miscible combinations of water or various organic liquids (the most common are methanol and acetonitrile). Water may contain buffers or salts to assist in the separation of the analyte components, or compounds such as Trifluoroacetic acid which acts as an ion pairing agent.

A further refinement to HPLC has been to vary the mobile phase composition during the analysis, this is known as gradient elution. A normal gradient for reverse phase chromatography might start at 5% methanol and progress linearly to 50% methanol over 25 minutes, depending on how hydrophobic the analyte is. The gradient separates the analyte mixtures as a function of the affinity of the analyte for the current mobile phase composition relative to the stationary phase. This partitioning process is similar to that which occurs during a liquid-liquid extraction but is continuous, not step-wise. In this example, using a water/methanol gradient, the more hydrophobic components will elute (come off the column) under conditions of relatively high methanol; whereas the more hydrophilic compounds will elute under conditions of relatively low methanol. The choice of solvents, additives and gradient depend on the nature of the stationary phase and the analyte. Often a series of tests are performed on the analyte and a number of generic runs may be processed in order to find the optimum HPLC method for the analyte - the method which gives the best separation of peaks.