Chromatography and HPLC Flashcards
What are different detectors for Chromatography and HPLC?
- MS
- ECD
- UV/vis spectrophotometry
- Fluorescence
Batch analysis – not suitable for high throughput/urgent analyses
What are the uses of Chromatography in a clinical lab?
- Drugs of abuse, therapeutic drug monitoring
- Steroid analysis/profiling
- Amino acid, organic acids, newborn screening
- Vitamin analysis
What is Chromatography?
- Separation of dissolved analytes depending on their relative attraction to various solid or liquid phases
- One phase is fixed “stationary phase”
- One phase moves “mobile phase”
- Like attracts like
What are some separation mechanisms?
- Adsorption: Uses electrostatic, hydrogen bonding or dispersive interactions between a molecule and solid support
- Partition: Based on relative solubility
- Ion-exchange: Sign and magnitude of ionic charges
- Steric exclusion: Based on size
- Affinity: Based on bio-specific interactions e.g. antibody-antigen
What is Partition Co-efficient?
- An analyte is in equilibrium between the two phases. Mobile phase is in equilibrium with Stationary phase
- The equilibrium constant, k, is termed the partition coefficient;
- Can be calculated by:
(Analyte(moles) in the stationary phase) / (Analyte(moles) in the mobile phase)
What are the stationary phases and mobile phases in Gas Chromatography?
- Stationary phases: Greases, gums and resins
- Mobile phases are gases such as helium and nitrogen
Separation based on the relative affinities to the column material and gas
What are stationary and mobile phases in Size Exclusion Chromatography?
- Stationary phase e.g. polyacrylamide gels, sephadex
- Mobile phase is a buffer
Separation based on the size and shape of molecule
What are stationary and mobile phases in Thin Layer Chromatography?
- Solid phase is silica or alumina
- Mobile phase is a solvent mixture
What are stationary and mobile phases in Ion Exchange Chromatography?
- Stationary phase can be gels, charged resins
- Mobile phases include buffers and salts
- Cation and anion
What is Ion exchange theory?
Strong vs Weak Ion exchange
- To elute from strong ion exchanger you need to replace the analyte with large amounts of salt with the same charge
- To elute from a weak ion exchanger you can alter the pH, then the analytes are no longer bound. The charge of the ion exchanger alters rather than the analyte
What are stationary and mobile phases in High Pressue Liquid Chromatography?
- Stationary phases are many! Usually silica based with or without functional groups
- Mobile phases are usually a buffer and a solvent
Also UPLC – Ultra pressure (performance) liquid chromatography
What are features of the solvent in HPLC?
- Often have one aqueous and one organic
- Can have single mixed solvenet
- Can use isocratic or gradient elution
- Can have additive in depending on the application: buffer, salts and ion pain reagent (chromatography on a hydrophobic pair exchange. Make a bridge between analyte and stationary phase)
- For MS there Adduct promotion and acids – prevent analyte colonisation
What a features of the pump in HPLC?
If more than one pump is used, each with a different solvent, mixing of solvents can be achieved
What features of the HPLC columns?
- Usually stainless steel (high pressure <300 bar, ultra pressure <800 bar)
- Have a packing material inside
- Held in place by a frit which is a filter to stop particles coming out
What are guard columns?
- Guard columns protect the more expensive analytical column from particulates
- May have packing material inside or be just a filter