High Pressure Liquid Chromatography with Porous Styrene-Divinylbenzene Polymer Packing

A porous spherical bead of polystyrene-divinylbenzene co-polymer is shown to be a superior packing for high pressure liquid chromatography. Since this packing has a lipophilic surface, the affinity with the lipophilic group in the solute molecule is strong. The chromatographic characteristics of the porous polymer packing were studied through the separation of benzene, benzoic acid and its esters, phenol, anisole and methyl substituted phenols and aniline, N-methyl and N,N-dimethyl anilines. The retention time or the capacity factor increases with the increase of the methyl or methylene group in the solute molecules using the methanolic solvent systems. The separation mechanism may be attributed to the adsorption with a kind of hydrophobic bond between the adsorbent and the solute molecules.