The effect of stationary-phase pore size on retention behavior in micellar liquid chromatography

One of the limitations that has restricted the applicability of micellar Liquid chromatography (MLC) is the weak eluting power of micellar mobile phases compared to conventional hydro-organic mobile phases used in reversed-phase liquid chromatography. This may be the result of Donnan or steric exclusion of the micelles from the pores of the stationary phase, within which nearly all (greater than or equal to 99%) of the stationary phase resides and the analytes spend most of their time. To determine whether wide-pore stationary phases would overcome this limitation in MLC, several C8 and C18 stationary phases ranging from 100 to 4000 Angstrom were investigated using a diverse set of test solutes and micellar solutions of anionic, neutral, and cationic surfactants as mobile phases. With the larger pore size stationary phases, the eluting power of the MLC mobile phases was enhanced with all surfactant types, the greatest effect being with the neutral surfactant. Differences in retention behavior were observed between various solute types and between the C8 and C18 stationary phases. These differences appear to be related to the relative hydrophobicity of the solutes and to differences in the surfactant-modified stationary phases. Partitioning behavior of representative solutes on the large-pore C8 and C18 columns was shown to follow the three-phase partitioning model for MLC. Methylene group selectivity data showed only minor differences in the stationary-phase characteristics between the small- and large-pore size C18 columns. The true eluting power of micellar mobile phases was revealed with wide-pore stationary phases and was demonstrated by the separation and elution of an extended series of alkylphenones on C18 columns.