Surface heterogeneity of six commercial brands of end-capped C-18-bonded silica. RPLC separations

Single component adsorption isotherms of phenol and caffeine were measured on six different commercial brands of end-capped C-18-bonded silica columns (five monomeric bonded phases: Kromasil, Waters Symmetry, Phenomenex, Hypersil, and Chromolith from Merck; one polymeric bonded phase, Vydac) with the same methanol/water solution (30/70, v/v) as the mobile phase. Adsorption data were acquired by frontal analysis (FA) for all these columns in the same way. Depending on their solubility in the mobile phase, the concentrations used ranged between 1 and 100 g/L and between 0.35 and 35 g/L for phenol and caffeine, respectively. Twenty-two adsorption data points were recorded over these ranges. In each case, the best isotherm model accounting for all sets of adsorption data is the bi-Langmuir model, all columns behaving as heterogeneous adsorbents despite the endcapping. Depending on the column, the high-energy sites accounts for between 30 and 40% and between 4 and 7% of the total saturation capacity for phenol and caffeine, respectively. Except for the polymeric phase (Vydac), the ratio of the adsorption constants on the high- and low-energy sites is constant at around 10 for both phenol and caffeine, corresponding to an average adsorption energy difference of 5 kJ/mol between these two sites. The exact nature of the high-energy sites is illustrated by the following properties: (i) they have a very low selectivity for caffeine, with alpha(caffeine/phenol) close to 0.4 for the five monomeric columns, which suggests the complete derivatization of residual silanols; (ii) the high-energy sites account for a large fraction of the surface area of these packing materials (35% for phenol, 6% for caffeine); (iii) there is a small adsorption energy difference between high and low adsorption energy sites (5 kJ/mol); and (iv) the adsorption constants increase with increasing surface coverage of the monomeric columns. Thus, the high energy sites cannot be residual free silanols of the bare silica. More likely, they are related to the local heterogeneity of the C-18-bonded-layer structure. Caffeine is more strongly retained on the low-energy sites than phenol (the product q(s), (1)b(1) is larger for caffeine) but the contribution of the high-energy sites (q(s), (2)b(2)) is markedly lower for caffeine than for phenol, despite the larger value of the adsorption constant, b(2). Because of a larger molecular size, caffeine cannot penetrate as deeply as phenol inside the bonded layer. This explains the paradox of a stronger retention for phenol than for caffeine on endcapped C-18-bonded stationary phases.