Assessment of β-lactams retention in hydrophilic interaction chromatography applying Box-Behnken design

In this paper, the retention prediction models for mixture of β-lactam antibiotics analyzed by hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) are presented. The aim of the study was to investigate the retention behavior of some organic acids and amphoteric compounds including cephalosporins (cefotaxime, cefalexin, cefaclor, cefuroxime, and cefuroxime axetil) and penicillins (ampicillin and amoxicillin). Retention of substances with acidic functional group in HILIC is considered to be interesting since the majority of publications in literature are related to basic compounds. In the beginning of the study, classical silica columns were chosen for the retention analysis. Then, preliminary study was done and factors with the most significant influence on the retention factors were selected. These factors with the impact on the retention factors were investigated employing Box-Behnken design as a tool. On the basis of the obtained results the mathematical models were created and tested using ANOVA test and finally verified. This approach enables the presentation of chromatographic retention in many ways (three-dimensional (3-D) graphs and simple two-dimensional graphical presentations). All of these gave the possibility to predict the chromatographic retention under different conditions. Furthermore, regarding the structure of the analyzed compounds, the potential retention mechanisms in HILIC were suggested.