Influence of ester and amide-containing surfactant headgroups on selectivity in micellar electrokinetic...

The selectivity differences between six anionic surfactants in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) are presented and the structural influence of the surfactant head-group is investigated. It was determined that the surfactant structure can have a significant impact on retention and selectivity. Linear solvation energy relationships (LSERs) are used to study the role of solute size, polarity/polarizability, and hydrogen bonding characteristics in determining retention and selectivity. While both the solute size and hydrogen bond accepting ability were found to be the most important factors in solute retention, the hydrogen bonding characteristic of the solutes have the largest influence on selectivity differences between surfactants.