Stationary-phase effects on efficiency in micellar liquid chromatography

One of the main limitations of micellar liquid chromatography (MLC) is the lower efficiency compared to reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) with hydro-organic mobile phases. The main contribution to the reduced efficiency has been shown to be due to the slow mass transfer between micelles, the aqueous phase, and the stationary phase mainly due to surfactant adsorption onto the stationary phase. The use of a variety of stationary phases, including large-pore short alkyl chain, non-porous, superficially porous, and perfluorinated, is shown to have differing effects on remediation of the reduced efficiency. Diffusion coefficients were determined by the Taylor–Aris dispersion technique for the construction of Knox plots. The Knox plots are used to compare the efficiency data obtained with the different columns using several alkylphenones in both micellar mobile phase and hydro-organic mobile phase.