Anion-exchange displacement centrifugal partition chromatography.

Ion-exchange displacement chromatography has been adapted to centrifugal partition chromatography. The use of an ionic liquid, benzalkonium chloride, as a strong anion-exchanger has proven to be efficient for the preparative separation of phenolic acid regioisomers. Multigram quantities of a mixture of three hydroxycinnamic acid isomers were separated using iodide as a displacer. The displacement process was characterized by a trapezoidal profile of analyte concentration in the eluate with narrow transition zones. By taking advantage of the partition rules involved in support-free liquid-liquid chromatography, a numerical separation model is proposed as a tool for preliminary process validation and further optimization.