Retention and mass transfer characteristics in reversed-phase liquid chromatography using a tetrahydrofuran–water solution as the mobile phase

The characteristics of the retention and the mass transfer kinetics in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) were measured on a system consisting of a C18-silica gel and a tetrahydrofuran–water (50:50, v/v) solution. These parameters were derived from the first and the second moments of the elution peaks, respectively. Further information on the thermodynamic properties of this system was derived from the temperature dependence of these moments. Some correlations previously established were confirmed for this system, namely, an enthalpy–entropy compensation for both retention and surface diffusion and a linear free-energy relationship. These results are compared with those observed in other similar systems using methanol–water (70:30, v/v) and acetonitrile–water (70:30, v/v) solutions. The contribution of surface diffusion to intraparticle diffusion in C18-silica gel particles was shown to be important. The analysis of the thermodynamic properties of surface diffusion suggests that, in these three RPLC systems, its activation energy is lower than the isosteric heat of adsorption. The nature and the extent of the influence of the mobile phase composition on the parameters describing the retention and the mass transfer kinetics are different but the chromatographic mechanisms involved in RPLC systems appear similar, irrespective of the nature of the organic modifier in the mobile phase.