HPLC

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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in surface water have become a major concern due to their persistency and toxicity. We recently spoke to Stefan Van Leeuwen and Bjorn Berendsen of Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR), in The Netherlands, about their novel research into non-targeted PFAS screening using an LC–HRMS method with fragment ion flagging.

Using ion mobility, analytes that have the same molecular mass can be separated by their shape, centers of mass, and collision cross section, but challenges such as ion loss can still occur. A new development in ion mobility separation, high-resolution ion mobility (HRIM), addresses such problems, and is particularly well suited to challenging applications, such as glycosylation monitoring of biological drugs and vitamin D analysis.

Two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) allows much greater resolution of peaks than is possible in a classical single dimensional separation. For the next development in separations, we employed 2D-LC in two highly orthogonal dimensions of separation with four mass spectrometers for detection, with parallel detection in each dimension. We have further broken ground by using three dimensions of separation with four mass spectrometers, using two parallel second dimensions.

Over the 17 years since the original Hydrophobic Subtraction Model for HPLC selectivity was published, those who curate the model have collected a huge amount of data as new HPLC stationary phases have been added. Analysis of this new data on almost 600 stationary phases has allowed us to update or adjust several of the stationary phase–analyte interaction terms within the model as well as adding one entirely new term to better describe the dipolar interactions with more modern stationary phases such as the pentafluoro phenyl-type phases.

Mycotoxins are toxic metabolites produced by fungal species often found in agricultural products. An accurate method for analyzing 12 regulated mycotoxins is described using UHPLC–MS/MS. The method demonstrated limits of quantitation (LOQs) for all analytes below stringent regulatory limits, making the method suitable for routine mycotoxin analysis.

Many of us have faced the situation where we have analytes that vary widely in their polarity or LogP(D) values and encounter issues with analyte solubility when choosing a suitable sample diluent for our high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The more polar analyte will favor aqueous solvents, and the less polar will be more highly soluble in organic solvent—so which do we choose?