Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography (HILIC) Method Migration

Most regulated laboratories have numerous HPLC systems, which may have different designs and characteristics. Because of these design differences, moving methods across systems requires testing to ensure comparable results are generated and the workflow is not impacted. One type of method executed in these regulated laboratories are HILIC methods which is used for separating polar compounds. HILIC methods present migration issues, especially for users who are not as familiar with its unique characteristics and dealing with design differences from one HPLC system to another.

While attempting to migrate the cetirizine hydrochloride organic impurities USP method, system suitability could not be met due to a split peak being observed in the system suitability solution sample on one of the systems.1,2 Because the presence of excess water in HILIC methods can pose chromatographic issues, investigative work was performed to determine if excess water was the root cause of the split peaks observed.

This study was performed to explore how the difference in autosampler design between the Alliance iS HPLC System and Vendor X HPLC System can affect the results of a HILIC method analysis when varying wash solvent compositions are utilized.