HIGH-PH ION-EXCHANGE SEPARATION AND ELECTROCHEMICAL DETECTION OF ALDITOLS, CARBOHYDRATES AND ACIDIC SUGARS

Recent advances in electrochemical detection of carbohydrates and related compounds have produced a need for chromatographic procedures which can effectively carry out the separation of these compounds under strongly alkaline conditions. Accordingly, the retention properties of commercially available, high-pH anion-exchange and ligand-exchange columns were evaluated for alditols, carbohydrates and aldonic, uronic and aldaric acids. It was shown that anion-exchange techniques were able to retain and resolve these groups from one another in a straight-forward fashion by managing the mobile phase ionic strength. Separations involving mixtures of compounds belonging to any one family were difficult only for the alditols, which are only weakly retained under these conditions. For this specific case, ligand-exchange columns were found to be able to resolve most mixtures. © 1990.