POLYMER-SILICA HYBRIDS - EVALUATION OF GRAFTED POLY(ACRYLONITRILE) ASORGANIC-PHASE FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

Poly(acrylonitrile) with a terminal reactive group at one side of the main chain was prepared by telomerization of acrylonitrile with 3-merc aptopropyltrimethoxysilane and then immobilized onto porous silica. HP LC using the packed column (SI-AN(n)) and an aqueous solution as a mob ile phase showed several unique retention behaviors for hydrocarbons: (1) the retention factor for alkylbenzenes was almost independent of t he alkyl length although simply cyanopropylated silica (Sil-CN) showed the increase of the retention time with increase of the alkyl length. (2) Sil-AN(n) showed remarkably better selectivity for pi-electron co ntaining hydrocarbons compared with Sil-CN and hydrophobized silica. I n this paper, such specificity of Sil-AN(n) is discussed in relation t o pi-electron recognition ability of poly(acrylonitrile) moiety.