Retention properties of hydrophobically end-capped poly(ethylene glycol)s on a β-cyclodextrin support

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to examine the retention behavior of monomethoxypoly(ethylene glycol)s bearing one hydrophobic naphthyl end group (Nap-MPEG) on β-cyclodextrin polymer (poly-β-CD) immobilized on a silica support, under isocratic elution conditions and using water as mobile phase. Studies of retentions and theoretical plate heights H were conducted at infinite dilution by comparing the behavior of Nap-MPEGs having different molecular weight (750, 1000 and 5000 g/mol). The larger is its molecular size, the lower is the retention of the polymer. The linear increase of H with mobile phase velocity reveals slow mass-transfer kinetics arising from the restricted diffusion into the pores of the support. The complexation constants between the Nap-MPEGs and β-CD in solution (around 500 M−1) were determined from the decrease of retention observed by adding increasing concentrations of hydroxypropyl β-CD into the eluent. The peak profiles in mass-overload conditions were studied by fitting a model based upon bi-Langmuir kinetics which assumes a non-uniform support having two types of binding sites and apparent adsorption rate constants are used to describe mass-transfer kinetics. A three-parameter adsorption equilibrium isotherm was sufficient to account for the modifications of peak shapes observed when increasing amounts of polymer were injected. This result indicates an interaction with a heterogeneous poly-β-CD support mainly composed of low affinity groups, non-saturable in the range of polymer concentration studied. An upper limit was estimated for the equilibrium constant (<1000 M−1) characterizing the affinity of Nap-MPEG for the non-saturable sites of the poly-β-CD support. Large affinity constants (8–9 × 104 M−1) were found for the interaction of Nap-MPEGs with a small percentage of active sites.