Course program
High-performance chromatographic techniques.
Theory and principles. Main application fields of chromatography. High Performance Liquid
Chromatography (HPLC). General aspects. Chromatographic parameters (capacity factors,
selectivity, efficiency, resolution). Van Deemter equation. Chromatographic supports and
their physico-chemical properties: surface chemistry, specific surface area, pore size and
volume. Bonded-phases: chemistry and stability. Separation mechanisms: liquid-liquid,
liquid-solid, normal-phase (NP), reversed-phase (RP). Ion-Exchange Chromatography
(IEC). Paired-Ion Chromatography (PIC). Size-Exclusion Chromatography (SEC).
Hydrophobic-Interaction Chromatography (HIC), Hydrophilic interaction Chromatography
(HILIC). Elution mode: isocratic and gradient. Detectors.
UHPLC: General aspects. UHPLC stationary phases.
High-Resolution Gas Chromatography (HRGC). General aspects. Microbore and packed
microcapillary columns.
Stereoselective and enantioselective separations. Direct and indirect approach. Main
interactions between selector and selectands. Thermodynamics of enantiomers separation.
Chiral stationary phases (CSPs) for HPLC and HRGC.
Infrared Spectroscopy (IR)
General aspects. Theory of Infrared Spectroscopy (IR). Main functional groups and typical
IR absorptions of organic molecules. Basics of Fourier Transform IR (FT-IR) spectrum
interpretation. Identification and structure elucidation of organic molecules by interpretation
of FT-IR spectra.
Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (UV)
General aspects. Theory of Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (UV). Lambert-Beer law. Electronic
transitions σ→σ*, n→σ*, n→π*, π→π*. UV instrumentation and solvents. Typical UV
absorbing of compounds featuring only σ bonds, of aliphatic compounds with n electrons
and of compounds with π electrons. Aromatic systems.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
General aspects. Theory of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Nuclear magnetic
moment, spin number, angular momentum, magnetogyric ratio. Larmor precession.
Relaxation processes: spin-lattice and spin-spin. Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectrometry
(
1H-NMR). Important concepts and parameters in NMR. Instrumentation and sample
handling. Chemical shift (diamagnetic anisotropy, bond anisotropic effect, ring-current
effect, hydrogen bond, solvent polarity and magnetic anisotropy). Spin-spin coupling,
multiplets, spin systems. Protons on heteroatoms. Exchangeable protons. Coupling of
protons to other important nuclei. Chemical shift equivalence. Magnetic equivalence (spincoupling equivalence). AMX, ABX, and ABC rigid systems with three coupling constants.
Chirality. Vicinal and geminal coupling in rigid systems: Karplus correlations. Long-range
coupling. Selective spin decoupling. Double resonance. Nuclear Overhauser Effect (NOE).
Shift reagents. Carbon Magnetic Resonance Spectrometry (13C-NMR). Total spin
decoupling spectra. Off-resonance spectra. Chemical shift equivalence. Correlation NMR
spectrometry. DEPT and APT experiments. Variable temperature NMR. Basics of 1H-NMR
and 13C-NMR spectrum interpretation.
Mass Spectrometry (MS)
Ionization systems: electron impact, chemical ionization, fast atom bombardment (FAB) –
ESI – APCi – MALDI.
Analyzers: magnetic and electrostatic sectors, quadrupolar systems, ion trap, time of flight
systems, orbitrap, tandem mass spectrometry.
Molecular ion, exact masses, isotopic abundance, isotopic clusters, elemental composition.
Typical fragmentation patterns in mass spectra, McLafferty rearrangement.
Books
Silverstein, Webster, Kiemle. Identificazione spettrometrica di composti organici, Terza
Edizione Italiana (2016) Casa Editrice Ambrosiana, Milano.