Understanding analyte physicochemical properties and their value in LC method development

Analyte retention in liquid chromatography (LC) is driven by molecular interactions between analyte molecules and both the mobile phase and stationary phase. The type and extent of these interactions are dependent on the physicochemical properties of the analyte.

An understanding of analyte properties is invaluable for method development, enabling selection of the appropriate chromatographic mode and key method parameters (e.g. mobile phase and stationary phase selection). For example, analyte pKa, logP and logD values can be used to evaluate ionisation state and hydrophobicity and can help predict analyte retention and guide mobile phase composition, pH and buffer selection.

This webinar will review the range of analyte properties that are important to consider when developing methods. These will be discussed in the context of the interactions between the analyte, mobile phase and stationary phase, which defines the separation process. Additionally, analyte structure presents opportunities to optimise separation selectivity by exploiting additional retention mechanisms offered by novel stationary phase chemistries. This will be discussed with examples demonstrating the impact this can have on the chromatographic separation obtained.

Presenter: Tony Edge

Tony Edge is the R&D Manager at Avantor, heading a team of specialist scientists in developing next generation stationary phases for HPLC. He has worked in both manufacturing and also industry, having periods of employment at LGC and also AstraZeneca as well as ThermoFisherScientific and latterly Agilent Technologies. In 2008, he was fortunate enough to be awarded the Desty memorial lecture for his contributions to innovating separation science, and in the same year also won a clinical excellence award from AstraZeneca. Tony’s current interests are centered on improving the extraction process and high-temperature chromatography. Tony was awarded an honorary fellowship at the Liverpool university, where he lectures on separation science, and also lectures at Keele University on Management in Analytical Science. Tony is also the President of The Chromatographic Society in the UK and a contributing editor for the Chromatography Today magazine. Tony is also part of the Reid Bioanalytical conference organising committee, and a permanent member of the scientific committee for the International Symposium on Chromatography.