Evaluation of Ternary Mobile Phases for the Analysis of Carbonyl Compound Derivatives Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

In this study, the feasibility of ternary mobile phases was examined in a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based analysis of carbonyl compounds (CCs). To test the performance of different ternary phases, the liquid phase standards containing a 15 aldehyde/ketone-DNPH(o) mix were analyzed through a series of five-point calibration experiments. For this comparison, three types of ternary mobile phases were prepared initially by mixing water (W) with two of the following three organic solvents: isopropanol (I), methanol (M), and tetrahydrofuran (T). The resulting three types of ternary phases (named as WIM, WTM, and WIT) were tested and evaluated in relation to the water content or in terms of methanol-to-water ratio (M/W). The results derived by the three ternary phases revealed that the optimal resolution was attained near maximum water content, while those of WIT consistently suffered from poor resolution problems. The relative performances of WIM and WTM phases, if assessed by three key operating parameters (sensitivity, retention time, and resolution), were found to be reliable for most selected CCs with the decreasing M/W ratio.