Ethanol:water mixtures have been reevaluated for use as reversed phase mobile phases. Optimization of the chromatographic conditions for both C8 and C18 columns was carried out through a factorial design which evaluates temperature, ethanol concentration and mobile phase flow rate. With the C8 stationary phase, peak asymmetries were not significantly altered at the different points in the factorial design while the retention factors and resolutions were somewhat lower at higher temperatures, where the viscosity of EtOH is lower. Similar observations were obtained with the C18 phase. The efficiency of the ethanol:water mobile phase for the separation of mixtures containing neutral and basic compounds was compared with those obtained using methanol:water and acetonitrile:water mobile phases. Ethanol was shown to be a good organic modifier for RP-HPLC, with good chromatographic properties. This, considering the much lower toxicity of ethanol, the facility of its disposal, and its favorable cost, should make ethanol:H2O the mobile phase of choice for many RP-HPLC applications.
HPLC; mobile phase; ethanol; methanol; acetonitrile
