In this work the influence of the porphyrin structure and of the nature of
the mobile phase upon retention parameters is examined by means of reversed
phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Acetonitrile-ethyl ac
etate and other mixtures were used as eluents. An increase in the retention
of azo- and benzosubstituted porphyrins as well as of those containing a l
arge number of carbon atoms as substituents of macrocycles may be noted. A
variation in the polarity of the mobile phase affects the retention of the
ligands more than that of their zinc complexes. The retention of the most h
ydrophobic compounds may be well described in coordinates Igk'-lgM. For les
s hydrophobic porphyrins these dependences are close to Linear only within
limited intervals of mobile phase ethyl acetate concentration. The best sep
aration of zinc complexes was achieved with acetonitrile as the eluent. The
detection limit of porphyrin ligands and complexes with metals is n x 10(-
8) M. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.