How to separate ionic liquids: Use of Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography and mixed mode phases

This chromatographic study deals with the development of a convenient and versatile method to separate Room Temperature Ionic Liquids. Different modes of chromatography were studied. The study attempts to answer the following question: what were the most important interactions for the separation of ionic liquids?. The results show that the essential interactions to assure a good retention of RTILs are the ionic ones and that hydrophobic interactions play a role in the selectivity of the separation. The separation of five imidazolium salt with a traditional dial columns in Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography (HILIC) was demonstrated. It shows that neutral diol grafted column allows an important retention that we assume is due to the capability of diol to develop a thick layer of water. Furthermore, stationary phase based on mixed interaction associating ion exchange and hydrophobic properties were studied. Firstly, it will be argued that it is possible to separate RTILs with a convenient retention and resolution according to a reverse phase elution with the Primesep columns made of a brush type long alkyl chain with an embedded negatively charged functional group. Secondly, a sucessful separation of RTILs in HILIC mode with a mixed phase column containing a cationic exchanger and a hydrophobic octyl chain length will be demonstrated. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.