Molecular differences between deuterated and protonated polystyrenes using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography

Isotopic substitution is a technique used to highlight particular bonds within a molecule for kinetic, spectroscopic and structure analysis. It is presumed that although some properties such as stretching frequencies will not be the same for substituted analogues, the chemical interactions will not vary appreciably as a function of labelling. Reversed-phase liquid chromatography has been used to demonstrate that there are significant differences between the chromatographic behaviour of a sequence of deuterated and protonated oligomeric polystyrenes. Two-dimensional reversed-phase liquid chromatography was used to show that even the diasteromers of the oligomers (n = 5) have retention mechanisms that are dependent on the subtle changes to the molecular conformation and electronic structure, which are a consequence of deuteration.