A Bromine-Terminated Triblock Copolymer (Br-PCL-PDMS-PCL-Br) as the Stationary Phase for Gas Chromatography Analysis

A bromine-terminated triblock copolymer (Br-PCL-PDMS-PCL-Br) was synthesized and employed as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The statically coated Br-PCL-PDMS-PCL-Br column showed the efficiency of 2260 plates/m determined by 1-octanol at 120 °C and moderate polarity. For evaluating the separation performance, a mixture of 23 analytes was employed and the commercial HP-35 and PEG-20 M columns were used as the reference columns. Also, the positional and cis-/trans -isomers were utilized to investigate the separation performance on the Br-PCL-PDMS-PCL-Br column. Moreover, it showed higher resolution of chloroaniline and bromoaniline isomers on the Br-PCL-PDMS-PCL-Br column than commercial HP-35 and PEG-20 M columns, and exhibited different retention behavior with HP-35 column. All the results indicated that there were multiple molecular recognition interactions between the Br-PCL-PDMS-PCL-Br stationary phase and the analytes, including H-bonding, dipole–dipole, CH··· π , dispersion and halogen-bonding interactions. This work provided a research basis for exploring the application of block copolymer materials in the field of chromatographic analysis.