High-concentration band profiles and system peaks for a ternary solute system

High-concentration HPLC band profiles of single solutes and the individual band profiles of the components of binary and ternary mixtures are reported for benzyl alcohol, 2-phenylethanol, and 2-methylbenzyl alcohol. These solutes were eluted from a C18 column by a binary mobile phase (MeOH:H2O = 1:1, v/v). High-concentration system peaks were obtained using mixtures of benzyl alcohol and 2-phenylethanol at different relative concentrations as the feed and 2-methylbenzyl alcohol as the strong mobile phase additive. Band profiles and system peak profiles were calculated using the equilibrium-dispersive model of chromatography. The adsorption equilibrium in the multicomponent system was characterized by the competitive Langmuir model. Excellent quantitative agreement was found between the experimental and the calculated profiles. This work confirms that extremely unusual system peak profiles can be obtained even when the adsorption behavior is quite simple. Under certain circumstances, the use of a properly chosen additive could markedly increase the separation between bands and hence the production rate, the recovery yield, and/or the purity of the fractions.