A study for the method transfer of acetylsalicylic acid from HPLC to RRLC

Abstract

The increasing demand for greater pharmaceutical throughput, as well as the need to develop cost effective and faster analysis has prompted the development of advanced forms of HPLC. Other drivers include the worldwide acetonitrile shortage and stricter regulations on waste generation and disposal. The Rapid Resolution Liquid Chromatography (RRLC) is a fast LC system that is designed to tolerate high back pressures and accommodate columns of smaller particle size and dimensions. Its design incorporates a minimal delay volume which is crucial when using small particle sizes to avoid band broadening. Consequently the final result is a method of significantly shorter run time with less solvent consumption and waste generation. Therefore companies are investing in instruments, such as the RRLC, in order to develop methods that are faster and cost effective in terms of money, time and resources. New analytical methods are being developed on the RRLC and already existing HPLC methods are being geometrically transferred onto the smaller columns of the RRLC. However prior to performing method transfers onto new instruments, it needs to be established whether the experimental parameters affect the results in the same way on both instruments Hence this study represented an investigation to determine whether methods could be transferred simply from a ‘standard’ HPLC with standard columns to a RRLC system, or else whether methods required to be optimised and revalidated on transferring.