SUPERCRITICAL FLUID CHROMATOGRAPHY OF IMIDAZOLE DERIVATIVES

The aim of this work was to use SFC to separate simple, slightly basic, imidazole derivatives which are used for the synthesis of more complex molecules with therapeutic properties. Control of their purity utilizes separation techniques and this paper shows that SFC can do in comparison with LC which requires derivatization before detection and with GC where peak tailing can be a problem. Our results concern the use of sub-critical mixtures of CO2 and polar modifiers because imidazole derivatives react with neat CO2, thus failing to elute from packed columns, and are only partially resolved on capillary columns with neat N2O. Therefore, separations with CO2-alcohol-amine-water mixtures on aminopropyl-bonded silica with UV detection are discussed. The resolution and sensitivity limits allow real sample analysis within a very short time.