Dual Fiber-In-capillary Annular Column with Ternary Stationary Phase for Gas Chromatographic Separation

In the present work a novel strategy for improving and/or tuning the selectivity of gas chromatographic (GC) separation by combining three different stationary phases (SPs) without premixing was introduced. A fused silica fiber coated with polydimethylsiloxane (SE30) and another coated with cyanopropylphenylmethylpolysiloxane (OV1701) were serially inserted into an 8-m polyethylene glycol 20 M (PEG20M) capillary column to form a GC annular column with ternary SP, abbreviating as SE30-OV1701-CF/PEG20M-CC. The separation capability of this ternary SP annular column was compared with a SE30-coated fiber-in-PEG20M-coated capillary annular column and a PEG20M-coated open tubular column by a test mixture of 19 organic compounds. Among these three columns, SE30-OV1701-CF/PEG20M-CC produced the best separation when the SE30-coated fiber and OV1701-coated fiber was 3 and 5 m, respectively. Selectivity can be easily tuned by changing the length of the SP-coated fibers in the ternary SP annular column. The proposed ternary SP annular column shows additional tunability, thus making it a promising tool for separation of organic solvents that are often used in the manufacturing process of pharmaceutical formulations and lacquer thinners.