Hydrophilic interaction chromatography and its recent applications in environmental analysis

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) has been used as a supplement method of reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) for the separation of the polar and hydrophilic compounds, and has been received more and more attention in recent years. One reason is that the separation problems of strongly polar compounds are rising in various fields. Another is that there are some obvious advantages of HILIC compared with RPLC in the separation of polar compounds, such as low viscosity of mobile phase, good permeability of the column, high sensitivity when coupled to mass spectrometry and low back pressure. In this review, the development history, characteristics and retention mechanism of HILIC are summarized. The main attention in this review is on the applications of HILIC in environmental analysis. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of HILIC and RPLC in the separation of pollutants are discussed, and the development trends of HILIC applications in environmental analysis are proposed.