New high performance liquid chromatographic stationary phase for the separation of C60 and C70

New high performance liquid chromatographic stationary phases, Polystyrene-divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) resins modified by the compounds viith electron-donating groups were prepared for the separation of C-60 and C-70. Strong interaction forces resulted from pi-pi charge transfer interactions between the fullerenes and the stationary phases made it possible to use strong solvent, such as o-xylene, as mobile phase in which fullerene has high solubility. Among the stationary phases studied, the PS-DVB resin modified by alpha-methylnaphthalene is the best in the separation of C-60 and C-70. Its column loading capacity is about 15 times higher than that of Ultrastyragel column. The separation factor of C-60 and C-70 is also high. Irreversible adsorption of fullerenes on the column was not observed obviously.