Development of a c18-bonded vinyl alcohol copolymer gel for reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract The fundamental characteristics of a polymer-based C 18 gel developed for reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography were investigated. The octadecyl polymer (ODP) gel obtained by introduction of octadecyl groups in place of the hydroxy groups of vinyl alcohol copolymers was packed into a 150 mm x 6 mm I.D. column and the performance was compared with that of commercial polystyrene and ODS gels. The ODP gel displayed excellent tolerance towards acidic, alkaline and buffered eluents, with little of the shrinkage and swelling shown by conventional polystyrene and modified polystyrene gels with varying eluent polarity, thus making it appropriate for a wide range of eluents, including water, ethanol and acetonitrile. The ODP column exhibited a theoretical plate number with alkyl alcohol standards that was higher than those of most ODS columns, and showed none of the adsorption and peak tailing that tend to occur with basic substances on ODS columns, owing to the complete absence of residual silanol groups in the ODP gel.