Novel imidazolium-embedded amine stationary phase : preparation and its performance for hydrophilic interaction chromatography

The development of the novel and highly efficient hydrophilic interaction chromatography stationary phase is important for the separation of polar compounds. In the present work, a novel imidazolium-embedded amine stationary phase (Sil-IEASP) was designed and prepared for hydrophilic interaction chromatographic separation. The prepared material was respectively characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, thermogravimetric analyzer and organic element analyzer. The results indicated that the novel stationary phase was successfully prepared with the present used method. The effects of the contents of water, salt concentration and pH on the retention of nucleosides and nucleic acid bases were respectively investigated, and the results indicated that Sil-IEASP is of hydrophilic interaction chromatographic nature. Furthermore, no obvious effect of buffer pH and salt concentration on the retention of these compounds were found. The developed material was further used for the separation of uracil, adenine, cytosine, uridine and positional isomers (o-terphenyl, m-terphenyl and triphenylene). Compared with the commonly used amino stationary phase, improved separation efficiency was achieved with the developed material, indicating the potential merit of the developed stationary phase for highly efficient hydrophilic interaction chromatographic separation. We anticipate that the novel stationary phase is promising for the hydrophilic interaction chromatography of polar compounds in the future research.