Micellar Liquid Chromatography: Fundamentals

Abstract The reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) mode with surfactant above the critical micellar concentration (CMC) has been called micellar liquid chromatography (MLC). In pure micellar systems, the retention behavior is explained by considering three phases or environments: surfactant‐modified stationary phase, bulk aqueous solvent, and micellar pseudo‐phase. Surfactant adsorption on the porous RPLC packing affects chromatographic retention, owing to the change of diverse surface properties of the stationary phase. In pure micellar systems, the retention behavior is explained by considering three phases or environments: surfactant‐modified stationary phase, bulk aqueous solvent, and micellar pseudo‐phase. In pure micellar mobile phases, water‐insoluble nonpolar solutes or species strongly bound to surfactant monomers do not participate significantly in the aqueous environment of the three‐phase partitioning scheme. Some of the solutions proposed along the years to overcome these limitations have favored the potential of the technique, but they have not resulted in an extensive use.