Methanol is a polar-protic solvent, whereas acetonitrile is a polar-aprotic solvent and possesses a stronger dipole moment. This means that the organic modifier used in the mobile phase can have a powerful effect on chromatographic selectivity

Application

Methanol can be used as a mobile phase in reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Methanol (MeOH) has been used in the wholemount immunofluorescence studies of embryonic tissues. As solvent for the preparation of extracts of hyphae of Aspergillus for the estimation of gliotoxin by reversed phase-HPLC.