The selectivity of a polydimethylsiloxane-based triblock copolymer as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography

Abstract

A triblock copolymer (PCL-PDMS-PCL) constructed from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) chains was synthesized and used as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC). PCL-PDMS-PCL was statically coated to the inner wall of the column, and exhibited moderate polarity and a column efficiency of 2920 plates per m measured using 1-octanol at 120 °C. Its chromatographic retention behavior and separation mechanism were evaluated by using a variety of different types of analytes and isomers. The PCL-PDMS-PCL column showed superior performance for the mixture of 17 linear analytes with different polarities and the mixtures of 22 analytes of diverse types over the composing counterpart PDMS. Moreover, it exhibits outstanding separation performance for some challenging isomers of aromatic amines and showed distinct advantages over PDMS, and commercial HP-35 and PEG-20M columns. This work demonstrates the great potential of triblock copolymers as novel gas chromatographic stationary phases in the field of chromatographic analysis.