Optimization of conditions for the separation of nondiffusing couplers of photographic materials by high-performance liquid chromatography

A procedure was proposed to optimize the HPLC conditions for separating hig hly hydrophobic compounds used as nondiffusing couplers in photographic mat erials. The procedure involves the steps of interactive computer optimizati on of the chromatographing conditions using the Microsoft Excel97 spreadshe et program for Windows with databases on the HPLC of hydrophobic substances and on physicochemical and consumer properties of solvents. To evaluate th e polarity of solvents, a rational function was suggested, namely, the arit hmetic mean of the following normalized arguments: the Snyder index P-t, th e Hildebrand parameter delta(T), the permittivity epsilon(r), and the solva tochromism parameter E-T(30).