Optimization of Mobile Phase Composition in Liquid Chromatography—A Survey of Most Commonly Used Chemometric Procedures

Abstract

Chemometrics offers techniques to reduce the number of experiments necessary for obtaining reliable predictions about the optimum conditions for liquid chromatographic separations. This article describes the different chemometric procedures that are currently used for mobile phase optimization. These procedures can be divided in three stages: the selection of the optimization criteria, the choise of the experimental set-up (design) and the evaluation and interpretation of the results. The optimization criteria usually involve resolution (either expressed as α, Rs or P), often analysis time and sometimes column length. The experimental set-up can be either sequential (e.g. simplex algorithm) or simultaneous (e.g. factorial designs). Data can be evaluated either graphically or by mathematical methods. The applicability of the different methods in general and for specific problems is discussed, using examples from the literature.