Poor retention of polar and/or ionic compounds or unsuitable peak shape of polar substances in reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RP-LC) in many cases was solved by application of hydrophilic
interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC). Generally, HILIC separation is carried out on polar columns (such as bare silica) with mobile phases consisting of an aqueous–organic
mixture (.50% of organic solvent, usually acetonitrile). Aqueous phase usually contains buffers such as ammonium acetate or ammonium formate. Such a mobile phase composition is compatible with mass detection, which could be considered an additional advantage of the HILIC method. Significance of the
HILIC method could be confirmed through the increasing number of papers dealing with its application in drug analysis. Some of the most recently published are references (1–6). Taking into account analytes’ characteristics, it was challenging to investigate behavior of geometric isomers Z and E of olopatadine in HILIC mode. Significance of this investigation is especially important
due to the fact that one isomer is active substance and another is impurity. Because benzalkonium chloride is a typical additive in pharmaceutical formulations of this drug, it was included in
the investigation as well. The chemical structures of the analyzed substances are presented in Figure