Diamides, e.g.,
N-lauroyl-l-valine-tert-butylamide,
self-associate in appropriate media through hydrogen
bonding. Such selectors form with apolar solvents binary phases,
for which the contribution of the polar
constituent to the overall retention is the product of the retention on
the pure diamide, its weight fraction (x),
and a concentration dependent factor (μ
x
).
In this paper a model is presented to interpret the effect of
the
weight fraction on μ
x
. The diamide in the
apolar solvent forms a mixture of structures of association
degree
1 to n, between which n − 1 equilibria can be
written. Every associate has at its terminals a site capable
of
hydrogen bonding to appropriate solutes (e.g., α-amino acid
derivatives). It is proposed that μ
x
=
N
x
/N
1,
where N
x
is the number of available
sites for hydrogen bonding at weight fraction x and
N
1 is that of the pure
diamide (x = 1). On the assumption that the above
equilibria have closely similar constants, equations were
developed to compute the number of the available sites by both
numerical and analytical procedures. A
good fit between the computed and experimental
μ
x
values was found. The equations
developed also permit
the estimation of the minimal value of the equilibria constants as well
as various other features of the diamide
association−dissociation system.