Ionic additives, such as ammonium acetate and ammonium formate, are usually used to control the mobile phase pH and ion strength. In HILIC they can also contribute to the polarity of the analyte, resulting in differential changes in retention. For extremely polar analytes (e.g. aminoglycoside antibiotics (gentamicin) or adenosine triphosphate), higher concentrations of buffer (c. 100 mM) are required to ensure that the analyte will be in a single ionic form. Otherwise, asymmetric peak shape, chromatographic tailing, and/or poor recovery from the stationary phase will be observed.  For the separation of neutral polar analytes (e.g. carbohydrates), no buffer is necessary.
Other salts, such as 100–300 mM sodium perchlorate, that are soluble in high-organic solvent mixtures (c. 70–90% acetonitrile), can be used to increase the mobile phase polarity to affect elution  These salts are not volatile, so this technique is less useful with a mass spectrometer as the detector. Usually a gradient (to increasing amounts of water) is enough to promote elution.
All ions partition into the stationary phase to some degree, so an occasional "wash" with water is required to ensure a reproducible stationary phase.