Separation of anilines by a covalent triazine-triphenyl polymer as a stationary phase for their normal-phase and reverse-phase determination by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)

Abstract

A covalent triazine-triphenyl polymer (CTP_CC-TP) was examined as a novel column packing material for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The separation performance of CTP_CC-TP was characterized using anilines as the analytes in reverse-phase (RP) and normal-phase (NP) modes. Various retention mechanisms, such as hydrogen-bonding, π-π, and hydrophobic-hydrophobic interactions, endowed CTP_CC-TP with a hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance performance, demonstrating promise for applications as a stationary phase for HPLC in normal-phase and reversed-phase. The CTP_CC-TP column showed good reproducibility with relative standard deviations from 0.28 to 0.93%, 1.73 to 3.12%, 1.57 to 3.69%, and 1.36 to 2.54% for retention time, peak height, peak area, and peak width at half maximum, respectively. In the normal and reverse phase modes, a thermodynamically spontaneous transfer process is demonstrated through negative ΔG values controlled by negative ΔH and ΔS values during the chromatographic separation. Excellent chemical and solvent stabilities, and the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance performance make CTP_CC-TP a good candidate for use in HPLC.