Prediction of peptide retention times.

A new approach for predicting the retention times of peptides, either with isocratic or gradient elution is described. The isocratic capacity factors of peptides are correlated with their molecular weights and with their hydrophobicities. Given the experimental conditions, and the amino acid composition, it is possible to calculate the retention time of a peptide eluted by a gradient, for any slope of gradient, flow-rate and column length.