USE OF THE CUBIC SPLINE INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM FOR THE SELECTION OF OPTIMAL TERNARY MOBILE-PHASE COMPOSITION IN RP-HPLC

In reversed phase liquid chromatography, the ternary mobile phase selectivity optimization is one of the most powerful techniques usable to achieve a separation with isocratic elution and allowing improvement of peak resolution without sacrifycing analysis time. The numerous solute-solvent interactions induce complicated mobile phase development schemes and require the use of computer-assisted development methods for an adequate recognition of the optimum location. The method we propose, based on the cubic spline interpolation algorithm, more flexible than the linear interpolation, allows to account for the commonly observed increase in solute capacity factor in ternary isoeluotropic mobile phases. An application is provided in the case of phenolic antioxidants. This technique permits a quick estimate of the separation abilities of the isoeluotropic ternary mobile phases. Moreover, given its iterative capabilities, the model accuracy grows with the number of experiments.