Separation performance of a star-shaped truxene-based stationary phase functionalized with peripheral 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene moieties for capillary gas chromatography

This work describes the separation performance of a star-shaped truxene-based material (denoted as EDOTT) as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The EDOTT capillary column achieved the column efficiency of 5920 plates/m by n-dodecane, 4890 plates/m by naphthalene and 3960 plates/m by 1-octanol at 120 ℃. Its selectivity and retention behaviour were investigated by a number of mixtures of diverse analytes and their isomers. As a result, it showed advantageous performance for separations of apolar to polar analytes, especially phenols and alcohols, over its analogous TTT, TDT and TFT stationary phases. In addition, the EDOTT capillary column was investigated for its column loadability, repeatability and thermal stability, and was finally applied for the determination of isomer impurities in real samples. This work provides an alternative truxene-based stationary phase with high selectivity for polar analytes and demonstrates the key role of structural modification in developing a family of stationary phases with specific selectivity for targeted analytes.