Chromatographic evaluation of a newly designed peptide-silica stationary phase in reverse phase liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography: Mixed mode behavior

► Novel peptide-silica (Sil-FUF) bio-inspired phase was designed and synthesized. ► The new material is useful for reversed-phase/hydrophilic interaction phase. ► It showed good separation for nucleosides and sulfa compounds in a HILIC mode. ► Chirality recognition ability was also observed. ► Multiple retention mechanism is involved in the chromatographic separation. The short peptide Boc-Phe-Aib-Phe-OH was synthesized and immobilized onto porous silica using grafting methodology. The resulting peptide-bonded silica was characterized using DRIFT-mode FT-IR, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, solid state C13 NMR spectroscopy and the successful immobilization of the peptide on the silica support was confirmed. This grafted phase was packed into a stainless steel column and used for mixed-mode chromatography such as reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography for the efficient separation of hydrophobic compounds, small polar molecules, and drug molecules. Compared with ODS and phenyl columns, this new stationary phase shows considerably higher molecular-planarity selectivity towards polyaromatic hydrocarbons and also available for separation of nucleo-analytes and sulfa-drug molecules in a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography mode. The multiple interactions induced by polar carbonyl group and hydrophobic phenyl group allow this peptide-modified silica to serve as a multi-mode stationary phase in high performance liquid chromatography.