Ion-Exclusion High-Performance Liquid Chromatography of Aliphatic Organic Acids Using a Surfactant-Modified C18 Column

Ion exclusion chromatography (IELC) of short chain aliphatic carboxylic acids is normally done using a cation exchange column under standard HPLC conditions but not in the ultra-HPLC (UHPLC) mode. A novel IELC method for the separation of this class of carboxylic acids by either HPLC or UHPLC utilizing a C18 column dynamically modified with sodium dodecyl sulfate has been developed. The sample capacity is estimated to be near 10 mM for a 20 mu L injection or 0.2 vmol using a 150 x 4.6 mm column. The optimum mobile phase determined for three standard mixtures of organic acids is 1.84 mM sulfuric acid at pH 2.43 and a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min. Under optimized conditions, a HPLC separation of four aliphatic carboxylic acids such as tartaric, malonic, lactic and acetic can be achieved in under 4 min and in <2 min in the UHPLC mode at 2.1 mL/min. Avariety of fruit juice and soft drink samples are analyzed. Stability of the column as measured by the retention order of maleic and fumaric acid is estimated to be similar to 4,000 column volumes using HPLC and 600 by UHPLC. Reproducible chromatograms are achieved over at least a 2-month period. This study shows that the utility of a C18 column can be easily extended when needed to IELC under either standard or UHPLC conditions.