A new type of triptycene-based stationary phases with alkylated benzimidazolium cations for gas chromatographic separations

Favorable physicochemical properties and unique molecular recognition capability endow triptycenebased materials with good potential as stationary phases for gas chromatography (GC). This work reports a new type of triptycene-based materials functionalized by three benzimidazolium cations with different peripheral alkyl lengths (denoted as TP-3Bim-5C and TP-3Bim-12C) and their GC separation performance. As a result, they shared high resolving performance for the naphthalene isomers but differed for the benzene derivatives with varying polarity. Moreover, their capillary columns exhibited good repeatability and thermal stability. This work presents a facile strategy for tailoring the selectivity of the TP-based stationary phases and demonstrates their promising future for chromatographic analysis.