HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHODS AND PROCEDURES OF HYDROPHOBICITY DETERMINATION

New methods and procedures of hydrophobicity determination employing high performance liquid chromatography are reviewed. After a brief analysis of the state of the art regarding the earlier developed methods, the approaches reported since 1986 are described. Advantages and limitations are discussed of the following HPLC stationary phase materials: poly (styrene‐divinylbenzene) copolymers, alkyl‐derivatized polymers, polymers immobilized on alumina and silanol‐deactivated silica‐based reversed‐phase materials. Separate paragraph is devoted to centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) as a method of hydrophobicity determination. The new methods and materials reduce (at least partially) the limitations of alkyl‐bonded silica phases, i.e., instability at pH above 8 and specific activity of free silanol groups of the support. At the same time the new HPLC systems are of a wider hydrophobicity measuring range and are more easy to handle than the 1‐octanol‐like systems. Several of the methods proposed seem to be convenient, reliable and to yield hydrophobicity data otherwise not readily available. Providing that appropriate columns are commercially distributed the new methods may replace soon the established HPLC procedures in an average QSAR laboratory. Copyright © 1990 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim