Recent Developments of Liquid Chromatography Stationary Phases for Compound Separation: From Proteins to Small Organic Compounds

Compound separation plays a key role in producing and analyzing chemical compounds. Various methods are offered to obtain high-quality separation results. Liquid chromatography is one of the most common tools used in compound separation across length scales, from larger biomacromolecules to smaller organic compounds. Liquid chromatography also allows ease of modification, the ability to combine compatible mobile and stationary phases, the ability to conduct qualitative and quantitative analyses, and the ability to concentrate samples. Notably, the main feature of a liquid chromatography setup is the stationary phase. The stationary phase directly interacts with the samples via various basic mode of interactions based on affinity, size, and electrostatic interactions. Different interactions between compounds and the stationary phase will eventually result in compound separation. Recent years have witnessed the development of stationary phases to increase binding selectivity, tunability, and reusability. To demonstrate the use of liquid chromatography across length scales of target molecules, this review discusses the recent development of stationary phases for separating macromolecule proteins and small organic compounds, such as small chiral molecules and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).