Conclusions
Benzotrifluoride, as a solvent system modifier, was introducedfor the n-hexane/acetonitrile system in CCC, resulting in a noveltype I solvent system with unique and mainly satisfying features.In particular, the system can be useful for the isocratic separa-tion of lipophilic compounds such as carotenoids as it providespartition coefficients in a suitable range for CCC. Under optimizedconditions even a separation between the structurally similar -carotene and -carotene in carrot extract was achieved throughspecific chemical interactions such as – molecular interactionsbetween the compounds and the modifier benzotrifluoride. Draw-backs of the novel n-hexane/benzotrifluoride/acetonitrile system inthe presented method were the rather low solubility of the crudecarrot extract and the influence of temperature on the separationfactor ˛ between -carotene and -carotene.However, it is already apparent that using benzotrifluoride as amodifier in CCC offers possibilities to expand the usage of lipophilictwo-phase solvent systems with suitable partition coefficients evenfor very non-polar compounds. Further investigation into the fieldof applications and in large scale applications are worth consider-ation.