Three versus five micrometer chlorinated polysaccharide-based packings in chiral capillary electrochromatography: performance evaluation

In this study, a test set of 44 nonacidic compounds was analyzed on four 3 µm chlorinated polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases with cellulose tris (3-chloro-4-methylphenylcarbamate) (Lux Cellulose-2®; LC2), amylose tris (5-chloro-2-methylphenylcarbamate) (Lux Amylose-2®, LA2), cellulose tris (4-chloro-3-methylphenylcarbamate) (Lux Cellulose-4®; LC4) and cellulose tris (3,5-dichlorophenylcarbamate) (Sepapak-5®, Sp5) as selectors. The analysis times, retention factors, efficiencies and enantioselectivities were compared with the results obtained on their 5 µm analogs. All 3 µm packings, except for LA2, individually separated more compounds than their 5 µm analogs. When the cumulative success rates on the 3 and 5 µm packings were considered, it was observed that they were similar for both particle sizes; the combination of three or four 5 µm columns separated one compound more from the considered test set than that of the same number of 3 µm columns. Furthermore, it was observed that the 3 and 5 µm packings showed some complementarity. Only four compounds were not separated on any of the columns, while the use of only either the 3 or 5 µm columns resulted in 10 and nine not-separated compounds, respectively. The analyses on 5 µm LC2 and Sp5 were faster than on their 3 µm analogs. For LC4 the 3 µm packing showed the shortest analysis times and diverse analysis times for both particle sizes were obtained on LA2. Furthermore, three out of four 3 µm packings, that is, LC2, LC4, and Sp5, were found to be more efficient than their 5 µm analogs.