A fundamental study of the effects of modifiers in supercritical fluid chromatography

The effects of organic modifiers on retention and peak shape in packed‐column supercritical fluid chromatography were studied. The adsorption behavior of different modifiers was investigated on stationary phases consisting of hydrocarbon monolayers chemically bonded on silica. Adsorption isotherms for several modifiers were recorded using breakthrough measurements. The results were compared with those obtained by a simple method based on the injection of different sample sizes. Modifiers were selected to reflect various types of interactions with the silica support. Isotherms were found to be approximately Langmuirean. Experiments were performed to elucidate the influence of adsorbed molecules on the retention of selected test solutes. The introduction of a solvent modifier can lead to a substantial change in the mobile phase density, the effect of which is comparable with that of an increase in the density of pure carbon dioxide. Our results confirm that the effects of low concentrations of modifiers (between 0 and 2 percent) in packed‐column SFC are largely due to deactivation of residual silanol groups on the silica support. The accessibility of the active sites was found to depend strongly on the size and structure of the modifier molecules. The decrease of retention due to the addition of low concentrations of modifiers could be described accurately by a model derived from Langmuir adsorption behavior. Some semi‐quantitative rules for the selection of modifiers and the required concentrations for optimum deactivation of the support are discussed.