Waruna Kiridena and Colin F. Poole
The solvation parameter model was used to characterize the retention properties of silica and a cyanopropylsiloxane-bonded silica sorbent in liquid–solid chromatography using hexane and various volume fractions of methyl tert-butyl ether as a mobile phase. The relative capacity of the solvated sorbent for dipole-type interactions and hydrogen-bond interactions, solute size and differences in the apparent phase ratio have to be considered to explain retention and selectivity differences for the two sorbents. Dipole-type and hydrogen-bond interactions favor retention whereas increasing solute size reduces retention for both sorbents, although the sorbent capacity and solvent dependence for these interactions are different. Solvent composition (range 10–50% v/v methyl tert-butyl ether) produces a similar trend for changes in cohesion and the solvated sorbent’s capacity for dipole-type interactions and capacity as a hydrogen-bond base, but different results for sorbent lone-pair electron and hydrogen-bond acid interactions. The quality of the model fits is excellent for the cyanopropylsiloxane-bonded sorbent but only approximate for silica (excluding nitrogen-containing bases in both cases). The poor fit for silica is probably due to the inadequacy of the characteristic volume to represent the projection of the cross-sectional area of the solute at the solvated sorbent surface and site-specific interactions of polar compounds with the heterogeneous surface sorption sites of the solvated sorbent. The anomalous behavior of the nitrogen-containing bases is possibly due to electrostatic interactions resulting from ion-exchange behavior that is not included in the model.