Expanding the Use of Liquid Chromatography Through Active Temperature Control

本项目由美国国家科学基金会化学部化学测量与成像计划资助。匹兹堡大学的斯蒂芬·韦伯教授和他的同事们解决了液相色谱学的局限性。该团队正在提高液相色谱技术区分一种物质和另一种物质的能力，以及提高测量各种样品中痕量浓度的能力。层析的基础是分配原理，即物质倾向于油性物质而不是水基溶液。该项目的成果包括以比以前更低的成本和更低的环境负担从样本中获得更多和更好的信息。与蛋白质组学(例如，健康、制药和生物化学研究)和二维液相色谱(例如，制药、化工、农业和环境)领域的科学家的合作证明了项目目标的有效性。更广泛的影响体现在对层析过程的改进，这些改进在许多领域和应用中都是有用的。几乎每个行业都使用了高效液相色谱法，例如，环境、制药、营养、法医、毒理学、聚合物、化学品和化妆品。韦伯博士还开发了一个女童子军功勋徽章项目，以探索层析方法及其用途。该项目使用柱子的温度控制，以实现更大的溶质聚焦，并以可预测的方式控制保留。控制特定化合物对温度变化的敏感度的保留热焓是对一些相关的有机化合物测定的。这些数据被用来确定分子的碎片热容。然后预测了新化合物的保留率与温度的关系。在柱温变化的情况下预测色谱行为的软件有助于色谱方法的开发。当温度控制用于辅助溶质聚焦时，显著提高了浓度检测下限。

This project is funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation. Professor Stephen Weber and colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh address limitations of liquid chromatography. The team is improving the ability of liquid chromatography techniques to distinguish one substance from another, as well as improving the ability to measure trace concentrations in a variety of samples. Chromatography is based on the principle of partitioning, the tendency of a substance to prefer an oily substance to water-based solution. The outcomes of this project include obtaining more and better information from samples with lower cost and lower environmental burden than has been previously realized. Collaborations with scientists in the fields of proteomics (for example, health, pharmaceuticals, and biochemistry research) and two-dimensional liquid chromatography (for example, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, agriculture, and the environment) demonstrate the effectiveness of the project goals. The broader impacts are evidenced in that improvements in chromatographic processes that are useful across many fields and applications. Liquid chromatography is used in virtually every industry, for example, environmental, pharmaceutical, nutritional, forensic, toxicology, polymers, chemicals, and cosmetics. A Girl Scout merit badge project is also being developed by Dr. Weber to explore chromatography methods and its uses.The project uses temperature control of the column to achieve greater solute focusing and to control retention in a predictable way. Retention enthalpies, which control the sensitivity of a particular compound to changes in temperature, are determined for a number of related organic compounds. These data are used to determine molecular fragment enthalpies. The temperature dependence of the retention of novel compounds are then predicted. Software to predict chromatographic behavior in the face of changing column temperature aids in chromatographic method development. The temperature control, when used to aid solute focusing, significantly improves concentration detection limits.