Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Poster Presentation
Effect of 1-Butyl -3-Methyl Imidazolium Terafluoroborate Ionic Liquid on the Peak
Asymmetry and Resolution of Basic Drugs on RPLC
Aaron Kerkemeyer, Kelsey Engle and Tariq Zeyad Ahmad
Faculty Mentor: Tarab Ahmad
Chemistry
Room temperature ionic liquids (RTIL) are good solvents for both inorganic and organic
materials, they are non-volatile, nonflammable, thermally stable, and recyclable solvents
and they have some particular properties in chemical reactions. Ionic liquids (ILs) are
used in reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography RP-HPLC as blockers
for silanol activity and as mobile phase additives and as a replacement of hazardous
organic solvents. In HPLC, the addition of ionic liquids (ILs) has great effects on the
separation of the compounds. They decrease the band tailing, reduce band broadening
and improve resolution. The objective of this work is to study the effect of 1-butyl 3methyl imidazolium tetrafluoroborate BMIMBF4 IL as a mobile phase additive on the
retention behavior and separation of Nortriptyline and Amitriptyline on RPHPLC. The
mobile phases used for this study contains 0- 20 mM BMIMBF4. The concentration of
acetonitrile used in the mobile phase was 0-40%. Our results indicate that both the
asymmetry and the retention factors are affected by the presence of the IL used.
Additionally, the resolution between the two compounds was improved. This is true for
analytical and for large scale separations.