Silica based click-dibenzo-18-crown-6-ether high performance liquid chromatography stationary phase and its application in separation of fullerenes

Crown ether is a type of typical macrocyclic polyether compounds, which can produce strong interactions with cationic species, such as metal ions and protonated amines due to its cavity structure and the strong electronegative effect of heteroatoms on the crown ether ring. In this paper, a type of silica based crown ether stationary phase was prepared by covalently bonding dibenzo-18-crown 6-ether (DBCE) on silica gel via copper (I) catalyzed azide-alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (CuAAC). The tetraazido DBCE was rapidly prepared by bromomethylation and subsequent azido substitution of DBCE. Finally, this key intermediate was covalently bonded to silica beads by click chemistry to get click-DBCE. Its structure was confirmed by FT-IR and elemental analysis, and the structures of all related intermediates were confirmed by NMR, IR and MS spectra. The crown ether based stationary phase showed good chromatography characteristics and column efficiency (up to 43,553 plates m(-1) theoretical plate number is obtained in the case of fluoranthene) under reverse phase liquid chromatographic (RPLC) model. The primary chromatographic evaluation showed that click-DBCE displayed better chromatography efficiency than commercial C18 stationary phase (THERMO BDS HYPERSIL), when they were applied in the separation of regio-isomers of benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and macrolide pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, this stationary phase could also be used to separate fullerenes under normal phase mode, and in this case, 1-chloronaphthalene was suitable additive for improving chromatographic separation ability.