The development of newer columns in chromatography is geared towards improving their selectivity towards given analytes or improvement in the column chemical stability. In recent years, the development of zirconia stationary phase brought hope of working at extended pH and high temperatures when compared to silica-based stationary phase. In this study, isomers of both copper and palladium were studied by varying pH and temperature on silica based columns (SymmetryShield™ C18 (150 mm × 3.9 mm), J’sphere ODS H-80, C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm)) and zirconia based column (DiamondBond-C18 (150 mm × 4.6 mm)). The results obtained revealed that increase in pH on zirconia-based columns led to the formation of multi-charged retention sites that resulted in the baseline resolution of the four isomers, in contrary to silica-based columns that could not resolve the four isomers under the same condition, but within pH range of 2–8. Temperature variations did not yield any improvement on the results obtained with silica-based columns. Silica columns were limited to maximum temperatures of 60 °C. The effect of high temperature on the DiamondBond C-18 was found to reduce the retention times and increase selectivity, resolution and column efficiency of the compounds, which are factors desirable for successful chromatography. In addition, there was improvement in the peak height on DiamondBond C-18 column, which could be beneficial for quantitative analyses through enhanced signal to noise ratio for lower detection limits. This study revealed the benefits of zirconia substrate due to its extended pH ranges and high temperatures, making this newer column to be of interest for application of a variety of chromatographic analyses.

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