Long-term high-temperature and pH stability assessment of modern commercially available stationary phases by using retention factor analysis

High-temperature liquid chromatography provides several advantages concerning HPLC method development and is needed to realize special hyphenation techniques. However, hardware limitations and stationary phase degradation can prevent the successful application of this technique. Therefore, column stability is of major importance. The presented study contains results of long-term high-temperature stability tests for eight modern commercially available HPLC stationary phases. Six of them were silica-based reversed-phase C18 columns tested according to an earlier reported procedure (Teutenberg, 2009 [12]). On the basis of the extended data set that covers a wide range of column technologies, a comparative approach using retention factor analysis was evaluated in order to categorize the columns according to their long-term high-temperature stability at 150 °C and changing pH value. This approach offers a more objective alternative to conventional listings in which temperature maxima are compared for columns tested under different conditions. Additionally, customized tests are presented for one promising polymer-based C18 stationary phase and an amide column for hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography.