Nucleotides are not retained in unbuffered HILIC because of a repulsion mechanism.
Hydrophilic cationic ion-pairing reagents enhance this retention.
Retention increases with the polarity of the cationic ion-pairing reagent.
The retention for these ion-pairs is based on a partition mechanism.
20 Nucleosides and nucleotides can be separated by HILIC in less than 9 min.