Design and evaluation of semicarbazide-embeddedd stationary phases for liquid chromatography

Semicarbazide, as a derivative of urea, constitutes a great variety of functional molecules for different needs. Herein, novel stationary phases with an incorporated semicarbazide group were proposed. Using aliphatic (docosanoyl, C22) and aromatic (benzoyl, Bz) hydrazides, the semicarbazide-embedded ligands were synthesized before chemical modification of the silica gel, allowing for an accurate interpretation of the chromatographic properties of the corresponding packings. The new stationary phases were water-wettable, due to the presence of highly polar groups. In particular, Bz-semicarbazide (Bz-SCD) stationary phase was sufficiently hydrophilic to run in hydrophilic interaction (HILIC) mode, whilst the C22 (C22-SCD) equivalent, in spite of its reversed-phase nature, was markedly less hydrophobic than the referenced polar-embedded ones. The versatility of C22-SCD was demonstrated with a large selection of analytes, including geometric isomers and standard mixtures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfonamides, sulfonylurea, substituted ureas, pyridines and carbamates, fat-soluble colorants, antifungal metabolites, angiotensin II receptor blockers and calcium channel blockers.

Supercritical fluid chromatography is not (only) normal-phase chromatography

Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), now using carbon dioxide as a major component of the mobile phase, has been known for over 60 years but still some misunderstandings remain about its capabilities. Amongst them, SFC is often described as a normal-phase chromatographic technique, based on different considerations: polarity of the stationary phase, elution order of the analytes, relative non-polarity of the mobile phase, non-linear retention behaviour, or adsorption retention mechanisms. All of these assumptions are true to a certain extent, and in certain circumstances. But also, all of these assumptions are wrong in different circumstances. In this paper, the criteria to categorize SFC as a normal-phase chromatographic method will be examined individually, considering all knowledge acquired from the early years of its development. Finally, it will appear that the "normal-phase" glass lens is greatly reducing the true extent of SFC's possibilities.

Geochemical and mineralogical characterization of phosphogypsum and leaching tests for the prediction of the mobility of trace elements

Phosphoric acid manufacturing generates large amounts of phosphogypsum (PG); a by-product generally disposed in the surface or evacuated in the seawater without any pretreatment. Phosphogypsum may host non-negligible amounts of valuable elements such as rare earth elements (REEs), which are critical elements on the global market. Surface disposal of PG may be a sustainable option to allow further processing in order to recover valuable elements. However, surface disposal exposes PG to atmospheric conditions (e.g., water, oxygen) which may increase their reactivity and accelerate the release rate of chemical species. This study aims to evaluate the trace element release rate from PG at atmospheric conditions. The studied PG samples were collected from a Moroccan phosphate treatment plant. The samples were characterized for their (i) chemical composition using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for major elements and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for trace elements; (ii) mineralogical composition by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope equipped with energy-dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), and the mineral chemical composition was analyzed by electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS); and (iii) chemical species release rate using leaching tests over 24 h at 25 and 60 °C. Chemically, the PG samples were mainly composed of Ca (23.03-23.35 wt.%), S (17.65-17.71 wt.%), and Si (0.75-0.82 wt.%), and non-negligible amounts of trace elements: REE (344-349 ppm), Cd (3.5-7.4 ppm), U (9.3-27.4 ppm). Mineralogically, the PGs are mainly formed by gypsum (94.2-95.9 wt.%) and quartz (1.67-1.76 wt.%). In terms of chemical species release, the PGs showed a higher reactivity at 60 °C compared to room temperature with a higher release rate at the beginning of the leaching tests. Quantitatively, the PG samples released 3.57-4.11 µg/L/day of REE, 3.18-17.29 µg/L/day of U, and 1.67-5.49 µg/L/day of Cd. Based on the leaching results, we concluded that the trace elements (e.g., U, Cd, REE) are incorporated in PG crystal lattice, which may explain their low concentrations in the leachates. Consequently, total digestion of PG matrix is required to solubilize REE.

Selenium species removal by nanofiltration: Determination of retention mechanisms

Selenium (Se) is a dissolved oxyanion drinking water contaminant requiring appropriate removal technologies. The removal of selenite (Se^IV) and selenite (Se^VI) with nanofiltration (NF) was investigated with an emphasis on the role of Se speciation and membrane charge screening on the retention mechanisms. The pH (2 to 12) showed strong pH dependence of Se retention, which was due to the speciation. No significant impact of salinity was observed by increasing NaCl concentration from 0.58 to 20 g/L. Application of the Donnan steric pore partitioning model with dielectric exclusion (DSPM-DE) showed that Donnan exclusion was the dominant retention mechanism for the oxyanions Se species. Nine different organic matter (OM) types were investigated at 10 mgC/L to determine if OM affects Se retention. Only OM characterised by negatively charged fractions, such as humic acid (HA), enhanced Se retention with NF270 of up to 20% for Se^IV and 10% for Se^VI. This was explained by enhanced Donnan exclusion. NF270 was effective in removing Se from real water (Gahard groundwater, Ille et Vilaine, France). The EU guideline (20 μg/L) of Se in drinking water was achieved with comparable performance to OM-free experiments using synthetic waters.

Retention properties of acetone-water mobile phases on a biphenylsiloxane-bonded silica stationary phase in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

The solvation parameter model system constants and retention factors were used to interpret retention properties of 39 calibration compounds on a biphenylsiloxane-bonded stationary phase (Kinetex Biphenyl) for acetone-water binary mobile phase systems containing 30-70% (v/v). Variation in system constants, phase ratios, and retention factors of acetone-water binary mobile phases systems were compared with more commonly used acetonitrile and methanol mobile phase systems. Retention properties of acetone mobile phases on a Kinetex Biphenyl column were more similar to that of acetonitrile than methanol mobile phases except with respect to selectivity equivalency. Importantly, selectivity differences arising between acetone and acetonitrile systems (the lower hydrogen-bond basicity of acetone-water mobile phases and differences in hydrogen-bond acidity, cavity formation and dispersion interactions) could be exploited in reversed-phase liquid chromatography method development on a Kinetex Biphenyl stationary phase. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Separation of multiphosphorylated cyclopeptides and their positional isomers by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS)

Peptides are efficient models used in different fields such as toxicology to study the interactions of several contaminants at the molecular scale, requiring the development of bio-analytical strategies. In this context, Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled to electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) was used to separate synthetic multiphosphorylated cyclopeptides and their positional isomers at physiological pH. We assessed (i) the selectivity of eleven HILIC columns, from different manufacturers and packed with diverse polar sorbents, and (ii) the effect of mobile phase composition on the separation selectivity. The best selectivity and baseline resolution were achieved with the columns grafted by neutral sorbents amide and diol. Furthermore, we investigated the HILIC retention mechanism of these peptides by examining the effect of the number of phosphorylated residues in the peptide scaffold on their retention. The peptide behavior followed the classical hydrophilic partitioning mechanism exclusively on amide and diol columns. This trend was not fully respected on bare and hybrid silica due to the attractive/repulsive interactions of the deprotonated surface silanol groups with the Arginine or Glutamate residues in the peptide scaffold according to the peptide sequence. The position of the phosphorylated amino acid in the peptide backbone also showed to have an impact on the retention, making possible the separation of positional isomers of these multiphosphorylated cyclic peptides using HILIC.

Solvation properties of acetone-water mobile phases in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

The solvation parameter model is used for the selectivity evaluation of siloxane-bonded reversed-phase columns with mobile phases containing from 20-70 % (v/v) acetone-water. System constants determined at 10 % (v/v) increments of acetone solvent were utilized for the construction of system maps and correlation diagrams on five columns with different stationary phase chemistry; superficially porous octadecylsiloxane-bonded silica (Kinetex C18), electrostatic-shielded octadecylsiloxane-bonded silica (Luna Omega PS C18, diisobutyloctadecyl-bonded silica(Kinetex XB-C18), phenylhexyl-bonded silica (Kinetex Phenyl-Hexyl) and octylsiloxane-bonded silica (Kinetex C8). For all columns and acetone-water compositions the calibration n = 34 to 39 had a range for the coefficient of determination from 0.988 to 0.998, Fisher statistic from 277 to 1551 and a standard error of the estimate from 0.024 to 0.097. A comparison of the system constants for acetonitrile and methanol compositions for the same separation conditions confirms that the general solvation properties of acetone mobiles phases are more similar to that of acetonitrile than methanol and that method transfer should not be difficult.

Recent progress in understanding the mechanism of heavy metals retention by iron (oxyhydr)oxides

Heavy metals are widespread toxic environmental pollutants that can generate enormous health and public concern. Iron (oxyhydr)oxides are ubiquitous in both natural and engineered environments and have great retention capacity of heavy metals due to their high surface areas and reactivity. The sequestration of heavy metal by iron (oxyhydr)oxides is one of the most vital geochemical/chemical processes controlling their environmental fate, transport, and bioavailability. In this review, some of the common iron (oxyhydr)oxides are introduced in detail in terms of their formation, occurrence, structure characteristics and interaction with heavy metals. Moreover, the retention mechanisms of metal cations (e.g., Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni, Zn), metal oxyanions (e.g., As, Sb, Cr), and coexisting multiple metals on various iron (oxyhydr)oxides are fully reviewed. Principal mechanisms of surface complexation, surface precipitation and structural incorporation are responsible for heavy metal retention on iron (oxyhydr)oxides, and greatly dependent on mineral species, metal ion species, reacting conditions (i.e., pH, heavy metal concentration, ionic strength, etc.) and chemical process (i.e., adsorption, coprecipitaton and mineral phase transformation process). The retention mechanisms summarized in this review would be helpful for remediating heavy metal contamination and predicting the long-term behavior of heavy metal in natural and engineered environments.

Effect of the methanol content in the mobile phase

Effect of mobile phase (water-methanol) composition on the enantioseparation of dipeptides on the chiral stationary phase Chirobiotic R was investigated using Ala-Ala, Leu-Leu, Gly-Leu, and Leu-Gly as case studies. The lipophilicity of dipeptides was found to be an essential factor in the dependence of their retention on the methanol percentage, the retention factor of lipophobic dipeptides increasing monotonously and that of lipophilic dipeptides changing according to an asymmetric U-shaped trajectory as methanol concentration increases. The behavior of enantioselectivity as a function of the methanol content also depends on the lipophilicity of dipeptide. For lipophilic Leu-Leu, the dependence has a dome-like shape, and for more lipophobic dipeptides, Ala-Ala and Gly-Leu, it is an increasing function of the methanol concentration. The importance of solvation equilibria in the bulk liquid and on the surface of the stationary phase for the total retention is discussed from the thermodynamic point of view. Special consideration is given to the adsorption of the water-methanol mixture on the surface of the Chirobiotic R stationary phase.

Biochar-amendment-reduced cotransport of graphene oxide nanoparticles and dimethyl phthalate in saturated porous media

Production and application of graphene oxide (GO) and biochar for water and soil treatment is steadily growing, driving the necessity to understand the cotransport behavior of contaminants and GO nanoparticles in porous media and the possible effect of biochar to reduce their cotransport. The cotransport of GO nanoparticles and dimethyl phthalate (DMP) as a model in a sand column and biochar-amended sand column (biochar column) was compared. The transport of DMP in the test columns was independent of the solution ionic strength (IS), while the transport of GO decreased with increased IS due to the enhanced aggregation of GO nanoparticles. The sand column had no retention capacity (less than 1%) for DMP, while the biochar column had significantly increased retention of DMP (100%). The retention of GO in the biochar column was significantly higher than that of the sand column because biochar can improve the roughness of the media and adsorb GO via π-π interactions. Under low-IS conditions, GO facilitated DMP transport by providing vehicles and adsorption sites (vehicle effect). Due to reversible adsorption-desorption, the adsorbed DMP on GO could be released, resulting in tailing during the flushing phase. The vehicle effect of GO on DMP transport was significantly weakened in the biochar columns, and DMP tailing during the flushing phase was not observed in the biochar columns, which was attributed to the strong retention/adsorption of the biochar columns for both GO and DMP, higher affinity of DMP on biochar than GO, and desorption hysteresis of DMP on biochar. These observations are important for evaluating the potential role of biochar in soil and water remediation, as well as mitigating the health risks of GO and organic contaminants in the environment.

Retention of acidic and basic analytes in reversed phase column using fluorinated and novel eluent additives for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

This research focuses on retention mechanisms in a LC column with C18 stationary phase when novel eluent additives (HFIP, HFTB and TFE as well as NFTB and perfluoropinacol) are used. The retention factors between novel eluent additives and conventional ones like ammonium acetate and ammonium bicarbonate at different eluent pH values were compared. A simple set of drug-like molecules, widely spread over different logP values, containing protonated and deprotonated acids and bases was selected for this investigation. HFIP, HFTB, NFTB and PP demonstrated strong influence on basic polar analytes in basic medium. These additives drastically increased retention. A decrease in retention was observed for acidic analytes when novel eluent additives were used. Additionally, for the first time, the absolute pH (pH_abs) scale was used for expressing the mobile phase pH.

Enantioselective retention mechanisms of dipeptides on antibiotic-based chiral stationary phases: Leucyl-leucine, glycyl-leucine, and leucyl-glycine as case studies

Chromatographic behaviors of dipeptides consisting of leucine and glycine were studied on two antibiotic-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with teicoplanin (Chirobiotic T) or ristocetin A (Chirobiotic R) as chiral selectors under reversed-phase conditions. The effect of mobile phase pH on the retention of stereoisomers of dipeptides was investigated and thermodynamic characteristic of adsorption were measured at different pH values. It was shown that the retention of dipeptides depends on the ionization of their molecules in the mobile phase, as different ionic forms have different affinity towards antibiotic selectors. Enantioselectivity of the bound antibiotics with respect to Leu-Leu stereoisomers was achieved via steric modulation of ion-ion interactions between the solute and the selector, while in the case of Gly-Leu enantiomers non-ionic interactions such as hydrogen bonding might play the key role. In both cases, the dipeptides terminating in D-Leu were retained stronger than their optical antipodes, whereas the enantiomers of Leu-Gly were hardly separated. The regression analysis of the retention data applying the Horvath-Melander-Molnar model revealed that different types of enantioselectivity resides in particular ionic forms of the compounds: cations are responsible for the separation of diastereomeric pairs and the anionic and zwitterionic forms have a universal enantioselectivity on the Chirobiotic T CSP, and the anions and zwitterions are the enantioselective forms for the Chirobiotic R CSP.

Chromatographic retention behaviour, modelling and optimization of a UHPLC-UV separation of the regioisomers of the Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) methoxphenidine (MXP)

A detailed investigation into the chromatographic retention behaviour and separation of the three regioisomers of the Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) methoxphenidine (i.e. 2-, 3- and 4-MXP isomers) has revealed the ionization state of the analyte and stationary phase, to be the controlling factor in dictating which retention mechanism is in operation. At low pH, poor separation and retention was observed. In contrast, at intermediate pH, enhanced retention and separation of the three MXP isomers was obtained; it appeared that there was a synergistic effect between the electrostatic and hydrophobic mechanisms. At high pH, the MXP isomers were retained by hydrophobic retention. Accurate retention time predictions (<0.5%) were achievable using non-linear retention models (3 × 3). This allowed the optimization of the gradient separation of the MXP isomers using a two-dimensional gradient and temperature design space. Prediction errors for peak width and resolution were, in most cases, lower than 5%. The use of linear models (2 × 2) still afforded retention time and resolution accuracies of <2.3 and 11% respectively. A rapid and highly sensitive LC-MS friendly method (i.e. R_smin > 5 within 4 min) was predicted and verified. The developed methodology should be highly suitable for the rapid, specific and sensitive detection and control of MXP regioisomers.

Performance of amines as silanol suppressors in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

In reversed-phase liquid chromatography, cationic basic compounds yield broad and asymmetrical peaks, as a result of their ionic interaction with the anionic free silanol groups present in the silica-based stationary phases (commonly derivatised with C18 groups). A simple way to improve the peak shape is the addition to the hydro-organic mobile phase of a reagent (usually called additive) with cationic character. This associates with the stationary phase to prevent the access of analytes to the free silanol groups. Cationic additives may interact electrostatically with the anionic silanols. The hydrophobic region of the additive may also associate with the alkyl chains bound to the stationary phase, with the positive charge oriented towards the mobile phase. The access to the silanol groups is thus blocked, but in turn, the stationary phase is positively charged and will repel the protonated basic compounds, which unless their polarity is sufficiently low, will elute at very short times. In this work, a comparative study of the performance of a group of amines (butylamine, pentylamine, hexylamine, cyclopentylamine, cycloheptylamine, N,N-dimethyloctylamine and tributylmethylammonium chloride), as modifiers of the chromatographic behaviour of basic compounds, is carried out. The behaviour is compared with that obtained with the ionic liquids 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, used as additives. The study revealed that the performance of the cationic additives to block the silanol activity is mainly explained by the additive size and its ability to be adsorbed onto the stationary phase.

Diversity, expansion, and evolutionary novelty of plant DNA-binding transcription factor families

Plant transcription factors (TFs) that interact with specific sequences via DNA-binding domains are crucial for regulating transcriptional initiation and are fundamental to plant development and environmental response. In addition, expansion of TF families has allowed functional divergence of duplicate copies, which has contributed to novel, and in some cases adaptive, traits in plants. Thus, TFs are central to the generation of the diverse plant species that we see today. Major plant agronomic traits, including those relevant to domestication, have also frequently arisen through changes in TF coding sequence or expression patterns. Here our goal is to provide an overview of plant TF evolution by first comparing the diversity of DNA-binding domains and the sizes of these domain families in plants and other eukaryotes. Because TFs are among the most highly expanded gene families in plants, the birth and death process of TFs as well as the mechanisms contributing to their retention are discussed. We also provide recent examples of how TFs have contributed to novel traits that are important in plant evolution and in agriculture.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Plant Gene Regulatory Mechanisms and Networks, edited by Dr. Erich Grotewold and Dr. Nathan Springer.

Preparation of a novel carboxyl stationary phase by "thiol-ene" click chemistry for hydrophilic interaction chromatography

A novel carboxyl-bonded silica stationary phase was prepared by "thiol-ene" click chemistry. The resultant Thiol-Click-COOH phase was evaluated under hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) mobile phase conditions. A comparison of the chromatographic performance of Thiol-Click-COOH and pure silica columns was performed according to the retention behaviors of analytes and the charged state of the stationary phases. The results indicated that the newly developed Thiol-Click-COOH column has a higher surface charge and stronger hydrophilicity than the pure silica column. Furthermore, the chromatographic behaviors of five nucleosides on the Thiol-Click-COOH phase were investigated in detail. Finally, a good separation of 13 nucleosides and bases, and four water-soluble vitamins was achieved.