Chromatography Forum

Andy Alpert introduced HILIC several (>10) yrs ago, but it is only slowly gaining momentum.

Why is this so slow to catch on? Is it because RP is so well celebrated, and people are creatures of habit, or is it merely in need some good old fashioned marketing?

There is nothing special about HILIC (AA introduced the term HILIC), it was known for years as a part of normal phase. HILIC has pros and cons as any other technique. I think that there are more limitations in HILIC than in RP. It will take some market share but probably will never go over 25%

I rather doubt any HPLC mode will over-take reversed phase simply because RP is in fact highly versatile, far more celebrated, studied, and utilized. Even if some other mode emerged that had more theoretical and practical utility, it seems it would take an awful long time to catch on. We're all creatures of habit, unlikely to fix that which isn't overtly busted, even if less than ideal. I sometimes joke that, under the right conditions, almost any separation can be done on almost any column. Yet, it is not uncommon for folks new to LC to regard some HPLC method as though it is a magic key of sort, handed down from a soothsayer, and balanced with a degree of precision such changing the flow rate by 10% may well set fire to the chromatograph.

The reason HILIC is interesting is because it handles both, compounds that are poorly retained or too well retained RP. Still, it's hard to envision HILIC becoming much more than a plan B.