Analysis of oligosaccharides using aminobonded silica gel and a ternary eluent with evaporative light scattering detection

Abstract

Using two commercial, amino bonded, silica gel columns, binary eluents (methanol/water, acetonitrile/methanol) and ternary eluents (acetonitrile/methanol/water) are evaluated for their ability to separate oligosaccharides in comparison with classical acetonitrile/water eluents. Chromatographic data on glucose, maltose, raffinose, stachyose and maltodextrin are reported. Mobile phases consisting of acetonitrile/water or acetonitrile/methanol/water produce the best separations. Phase hydrolysis is evaluated using an evaporative light scattering detector. The reduction of the water content in the eluent stabilizes the aminocolumns and the life time of the amino columns should be improved with the ternary eluent. Moreover, a better detection limit can be obtained. Capabilties to run gradient elution without baseline drift are clearly demonstrated.