Understanding and manipulating the separation in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Chromatography Science

Background:

• Reversed-phase (RP) chromatography struggles with retaining polar and ionized analytes.
• Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) offers a complementary separation mechanism.
• HILIC provides unique selectivity and is suitable for analyzing challenging polar compounds.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advancements in HILIC over the past decade.
• To provide insights into HILIC column classification, retention, and selectivity.
• To discuss modeling of HILIC separation processes and kinetics.

Main Methods:

• Review of recent scientific literature on HILIC.
• Analysis of factors influencing retention and selectivity in HILIC.
• Examination of HILIC's application in 2D-LC and with mass spectrometry.

Main Results:

• HILIC effectively retains polar and ionized solutes, complementing RP.
• HILIC offers orthogonal selectivity when coupled with RP in 2D-LC.
• HILIC demonstrates advantages like lower back pressures and enhanced sensitivity with MS.

Conclusions:

• HILIC is a vital technique for analyzing polar compounds, expanding chromatographic capabilities.
• Understanding HILIC retention mechanisms and kinetics is crucial for method development.
• HILIC's unique properties make it valuable for complex sample analysis and orthogonal separations.