To date, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been recognized as promising solid phases in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This research aimed to elucidate the role of the physico-chemical characteristics of the microporous HKUST-1 metal-organic framework in its operation as a selective adsorbent in HPLC. For this, the HKUST-1 samples were prepared by microwave-assisted synthesis and a solvothermal procedure. According to the chromatographic examinations, the HKUST-1 material synthesized in the microwave fields shows an efficient performance in the selective adsorption of aromatic compounds with different functionalities. This study revealed a significant impact of the preparation procedure on the mechanism of the liquid-phase adsorption on the HKUST adsorbents under conditions of the HPLC. An effect of the elution solvent with the different coordination ability to the Cu²⁺ sites in the HKUST-1 structure on the adsorption selectivity was observed.

The sorption of a series of aromatic heterocycles on neutral hypercrosslinked polystyrene from maximally dilute acetonitrile and water.acetonitrile solutions of them is investigated by high-performance liquid chromatography in a range of column temperatures from 308 to 348 K at 5 K intervals. It is found that for all heterocycles, the logarithm of the retention factor versus the reciprocal of the temperature dependences can be approximated by linear functions with r ² ≥ 0.999. It is established that the true compensation effect (which does not result from the correlation between enthalpy and entropy determination errors) occurs during the sorption of heterocycles on hypercrosslinked polystyrene from both acetonitrile and water-acetonitrile solutions. It is shown that in the compensation diagram, the points corresponding to sorbates are grouped together according to the type of sorbate-sorbent interactions. It is found that changes in the Gibbs energy, enthalpy, and entropy of sorption from acetonitrile solutions and for sorption from water-acetonitrile solutions are related to one another by linear dependences.

The relationships that associate the equilibrium distribution constant and retention factor in high-performance liquid chromatography are analyzed critically. The K _c = kV _M/v _a + 1 relationship suggested by Yu.A. El’tekov is derived without using the relationship between the Henry adsorption constant and the retention factor. The incorrectness of using another relationship, K _c = k/φ, to calculate the distribution constant, which is determined by ignoring the excess character of the retention factor measured experimentally when deriving it, is demonstrated. It is proposed that the retention factor be determined by the ratio of the excess amount of adsorbate in an adsorption layer to the amount of adsorbate in bulk solution.