Effect of water addition to super/sub-critical fluid mobile-phases for achiral and chiral separations

Rapid profiling of cytokinins using supercritical fluid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

BACKGROUND

The determination of plant hormones is still a very challenging analytical discipline, mainly due to their low concentration in complex plant matrices. Therefore, the involvement of very sensitive high-throughput techniques is required. Cytokinins (CKs) are semi-polar basic plant hormones regulating plant growth and development. Modern methods for CK determination are currently based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), which enables the separation of CK isomeric forms occurring endogenously in plants. Here, ultra-high performance supercritical fluid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPSFC-MS/MS) was used for the simultaneous determination of 37 CK metabolites.

RESULTS

The chromatographic conditions were tested on three different columns with various retention mechanisms. Hybrid silica modified with 2-picolylamine was selected as the stationary phase. Several parameters such as column temperature, back pressure regulation, mobile phase composition and make-up solvent were investigated to achieve efficient separation of CK isomers and reasonable sensitivity. Compared to UHPLC-MS/MS, a 9-min chromatographic analysis using a mobile phase of supercritical CO2 and 5 mM ammonia in methanol represents a three-fold acceleration of total run time. The quantification limit of UHPSFC-MS/MS method was in the range of 0.03-0.19 fmol per injection and the method validation showed high accuracy and precision (below 15 % for most analytes). The method was finally applied to the complex plant matrix of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and the obtained profiles of CK metabolites were compared with the results from the conventional UHPLC-MS/MS method.

SIGNIFICANCE

The presented work offers a novel approach for quantification of endogenous CKs in plants. Compared to the conventional UHPLC-MS/MS, the total run time is shorter and the matrix effect lower for the key CK metabolites. This approach opens the opportunity to utilize UHPSFC-MS/MS instrumentation for targeted plant hormonomics including other plant hormone families.

Effect of water and protic solvents on polysaccharide-based column efficiency

In the present study, polysaccharide-based columns were used to evaluate the efficiency of columns in response to the introduction of water and protic solvents (methanol and ethanol) into the mobile phase, replacing acetonitrile. While increasing water content frequently enhances enantiomer resolution, the inclusion of water, particularly when combined with methanol and ethanol in the mobile phase, has an adverse impact on mass transfer, thus influencing the column plate height. These effects are more pronounced with ethanol, and in many cases, van Deemter plots exhibit the absence of a minimum point optimal in the explored range. Consequently, acetonitrile and its water mixtures are the preferred choices to mitigate these effects for situations in which the chiral column is operated at a relatively high flow rate (> 1 mL/min in a 4.6 mm column).

Evaluation of control of additive concentration in gradient analysis of supercritical fluid chromatography-coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

Mobile phase additives are used to improve retention behavior in chromatography. In supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), for which supercritical fluid carbon dioxide (SF-CO2) is used as the main mobile phase, additives can only be added into the modifier. For that reason, when gradient analysis is performed by changing the modifier ratio to SF-CO2, the additive concentration in the mobile phase increases in parallel with the modifier ratio. In a preliminary study performed using the conventional SFC system, ammonium acetate was necessary to improve the peak shape of a polar steroid, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), while the peak intensity of a non-polar steroid, progesterone, decreased by 78% compared to that in the absence of the additive in mobile phase when gradient elution was performed. Since ammonium acetate had both favorable and unfavorable effects on sensitive and simultaneous analysis of these two steroid compounds, a compromise between these effects had to be sought. A three-pump configuration of SFC was developed by adding a pump unit to SFC instrument, which enabled control of the additive concentration independently of the modifier ratio, for the purpose of investigating the additive effect in detail using both steroids as model compounds. The putative cause of the decrease in peak intensity of progesterone was excessively elevated additive concentration in gradient analysis. When the additive concentration in the mobile phase was controlled to ensure that it did not increase during gradient analysis, the peak intensities of progesterone, cortisol, corticosterone, and testosterone were 55%, 40%, 25%, and 17% higher than when the additive concentration was not controlled, respectively. On the other hand, the peak intensity of DHEA-S was almost identical between the conditions, with an increase of 2% with three-pump instrument. The three-pump configuration showed the potential to solve problems relating to the use of modifier additives by keeping their concentration constant in gradient SFC analysis.

The Enantioselective Potential of NicoShell and TeicoShell Columns for Basic Pharmaceuticals and Forensic Drugs in Sub/Supercritical Fluid Chromatography

The enantioselective potential of two macrocyclic glycopeptide-based chiral stationary phases for analysis of 28 structurally diverse biologically active compounds such as derivatives of pyrovalerone, ketamine, cathinone, and other representatives of psychostimulants and antidepressants was evaluated in sub/supercritical fluid chromatography. The chiral selectors immobilized on 2.7 μm superficially porous particles were teicoplanin (TeicoShell column) and modified macrocyclic glycopeptide (NicoShell column). The influence of the organic modifier and different mobile phase additives on the retention and enantioresolution were investigated. The obtained results confirmed that the mobile phase additives, especially water as a single additive or in combination with basic and acidic additives, improve peak shape and enhance enantioresolution. In addition, the effect of temperature was evaluated to optimize the enantioseparation process. Both columns exhibited comparable enantioselectivity, approximately 90% of the compounds tested were enantioseparated, and 30% out of them were baseline enantioresolved under the tested conditions. The complementary enantioselectivity of the macrocyclic glycopeptide-based chiral stationary phases was emphasized. This work can be useful for the method development for the enantioseparation of basic biologically active compounds of interest.

Insights into enantioselective separations of ionic metal complexes by sub/supercritical fluid chromatography

Sub/supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) is a green separation technique that has been used to separate a wide variety of compounds and is proven to be immensely useful for chiral separations. However, SFC is currently not thought to be applicable for ionic compounds due to their low solubility in CO2, even with additives and organic modifiers. Recently, a large amount of research has been centered on octahedral complexes of Ru(II) and Os(II) with bidentate polypyridyl ligands due to their ability to serve in cancer treatment and other biological activities. These compounds exist as the delta (Δ) and lambda (Λ) enantiomers. Previously, similar compounds have been enantiomerically separated using HPLC and capillary electrophoresis, but never with SFC. Cyclofructan-6 (CF6) derivatized with (R)-naphthyl ethyl (RN) groups has been proven to be an effective chiral stationary phase for these separations in HPLC. This column chemistry was expanded to SFC to provide the first chiral separation of a wide variety (23 complexes in total) of ionic octahedral polypyridyl complexes. Unexpected behavior for mixing methanol and acetonitrile as the organic modifier will be discussed, along with the effects of additives. Enantioselectivity on CF6-RN chemistry is shown to be dependent on the conjugation level and rigidity of the metal complexes. Mass transfer kinetic behavior is also shown, and high-efficiency baseline resolved rapid separations are shown for fast screening or quantitation of representative coordination complexes.