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A four-site exchange model is developed in order to explain deuterium -nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD) profiles of acetonitrile in silica pore systems. The four-site exchange model comprises a bulk, surface and two types of burried or cavity sites. It is found that the residence time of acetonitrile- at a flat Si-surface is less than 100 ps. No bilayer-like ordering of acetonitrile is formed at the Si-surface because no quadrupole splitting was observed. The dispersion in the deuterium T1-NMRD profiles are due to relatively few so-called beta-sites with molecular residence time in the range 0.2-2 micro seconds. This deuterium T-NMR dispersion experiment suggest that the retention time of different analysts can be studied in terms of their residence time in beta sites.

The interactions and dynamic behavior of a select set of polar probe solutes have been investigated on three hydrophilic and polar commercial stationary phases using saturation transfer difference 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (STD-NMR) spectroscopy under magic angle spinning conditions. The stationary phases were equilibrated with a select set of polar solutes expected to show different interaction patterns in mixtures of deuterated acetonitrile and deuterium oxide, with ammonium acetate added to a total concentration that mimics typical eluent conditions for hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC). The methylene groups of the stationary phases were selectively irradiated to saturate the ligand protons, at frequencies that minimized the overlaps with reporting protons in the test probes. During and after this radiation, the saturation rapidly spreads to all protons in the stationary phase by spin diffusion, and from those to probe protons in contact with the stationary phase. Probe protons that have been in close contact with the stationary phase and subsequently been released to the solution phase will have been more saturated due to a more efficient transfer of spin polarization by the nuclear Overhauser effect. They will therefore show a higher signal after processing of the data. Saturation transfers to protons in neutral and charged solutes could in some instances show clear orientation patterns of these solutes towards the stationary phases. The saturation profile of formamide and its N-methylated counterparts showed patterns that could be interpreted as oriented hydrogen bond interaction. From these studies, it is evident that the functional groups on the phase surface have a strong contribution to the selectivity in HILIC, and that the retention mechanism has a significant contribution from oriented interactions.

This thesis deals with investigations of the retention mechanisms in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The aims are to understand how the different types of stationary phases can influence the retention of various solutes and the adsorption abilities of solvent on stationary phases.

The thesis encompasses the development of a saturation transfer diffe­rence nuclear magnetic resonance (STD-NMR) spectroscopy method by which the mechanisms in HILIC were probed on hydrophilic and polar stationary phases with varying charge properties and water-retaining abilities under high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) condit­ions. By applying the developed method, results show that toluene is in­deed capable of traversing the water-enriched layers of all the three tested stationary phases. In addition, the STD-NMR method was applied to study interaction mechanisms using set hydrophilic compounds rang­ing from small organic acids, nucleobases, nucleosides, and other neutral molecules to further elucidate the differences in HILIC selectivity caused by a dipolar interaction, hydrogen bonding, and electrostatic interaction.

Finally, the solvent adsorption on the stationary surface was studied by applying a nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD) technique in combination with a relaxation model in order to resolve the deuterium T₁-NMRD profile of acetonitrile-d₃ in aqueous solutions confined in the pores of modified HILIC silicas with nominal pore diameters ranging from of 6 to 10 nm. It was found that the acetonitrile-d₃ had a strong field dependence at low magnetic fields, which was attri­buted to surface sites at which the molecules were trapped with residence times in the range of 0.1–3 µs.

Toluene has been used as void volume (zero retention) marker since the inception of hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC), based on the assumption that its hydrophobicity should prevent it from interacting with stationary phases envisioned to be covered by relatively thick layers of water. Recent work has shown that the void volumes of partly water-swollen HILIC phases are not identical to the volumes probed by toluene, yet the compound is still ubiquitously used as void volume marker. As part of our investigations of the retention mechanisms in HILIC, we probed the extent to which toluene is capable of penetrating into the water-enriched layer and to interact with the functional groups of three commercially available hydrophilic and polar stationary phases with different charge properties and water-retaining abilities, using saturation transfer difference ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (STD-NMR) spectroscopy at high resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) conditions. The test solutions were 1000 ppm of toluene in deuterated acetonitrile and water mixtures, with and without addition of ammonium acetate, in order to mimic a set of conditions typically encountered in HILIC separations. Interactions between toluene and the functional groups on the stationary phases were probed by equilibrating the phases with these eluent mimics and measuring the transfer of magnetization from stationary phase protons to the protons of toluene. Our results show that toluene is indeed capable of traversing the water-enriched layers of all the three tested phases and of interacting with protons that are tightly associated with the stationary phases.