A selective and inert stationary phase combining triptycene with tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate for capillary gas chromatography

Abstract

This work reports a selective and inert triptycene-based stationary phase (TPT) combining the triptycene framework with tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate (TPGS) units for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The TPT stationary phase was physically coated onto a capillary column by static coating method with the column efficiency of 4200 plates/m and moderate polarity. As demonstrated, the TPT column exhibited high inertness towards organic bases, including basic heterocycles, aliphatic and aromatic amines, showing distinct advantages over the TPGS and commercial columns. Also, the TPT column displayed high-resolution performance towards the isomers of methylpyridines, toluidines, xylidines and alkanes (C6–C8). Moreover, it showed excellent separation repeatability and reproducibility with RSD values in the range of 0.03%-0.07% for run-to-run, 0.12%–0.18% for day-to-day and 2.3%–3.6% for column-to- column (n = 4). Its applications to purity test of chemical products and to GC-MS analysis of the essential oil of Artemisia annua L. demonstrated its good potential for practical analyses. The present work has novelty in constructing highly selective and inert stationary phases and providing a feasible strategy for concurrently addressing the related problems in GC analyses. Its methodology and findings is of important value in terms of fundamental researches and practical applications.