Ester-functionalized pillar[6]arene as the gas chromatographic stationary phase with high-resolution performance towards the challenging isomers of xylenes, diethylbenzenes, and ethyltoluenes

This work presents the first example of the utilization of polar ester group functionalized pillar[6]arene (P6A-C10-OAc) as a stationary phase for capillary gas chromatographic (GC) separations. The statically coated P6A-C10-OAc column showed a high column efficiency of 5393 plates/m and moderate polar nature. Its resolving capability and retention behaviors were investigated for a mixture of 20 analytes and more than a dozen isomers from apolar to polar in nature. As evidenced, the P6A-C10-OAc column achieved high-resolution separations of all the analytes and good inertness. Importantly, it exhibited distinctly advantageous performance for high resolution of the challenging isomers of xylenes, diethylbenzenes, ethyltoluenes, and halobenzenes over the commercial HP-5 (5% phenyl dimethyl polysiloxane), HP-35 (25% phenyl dimethyl polysiloxane), and PEG-20M (polyethylene glycol) columns. Graphical Abstract