Fibrous rigid-rod heterocyclic polymer as the stationary phase in packed capillary gas chromatography

A fibrous rigid-rod polymer was successfully introduced as the stationary phase in capillary gas chromatography (GC) and the basic separation performance was investigated. Zylon®, poly(p-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole), fibers were adopted as the stationary phase taking into account the chemical structure, heat resistance, solvent resistance, and the physical strength for the convenience in column packing process. About 330 and 600 filaments of the polymer were packed longitudinally into fused-silica capillaries of 0.32 and 0.53 mm inner diameter, respectively, and the separation of several test mixtures, such as n-alkylbenzenes and n-alkanes was carried out with these fiber-packed capillary columns in GC. The results clearly indicated that the fiber-packed capillary columns have a great potential as the separation media for volatile compounds. The results also showed the possibility of the synthesis of novel tailored polymer fiber to separate particular class of compounds based on the specific selectivity by the chemical structure of the fiber. Coated-fiber packings were also evaluated to confirm the contribution of the fibers and the coatings to the separation characteristics. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Micro Sep 13: 259–264, 2001