State-dependent gas chromatography based on flexible and tunable porous coordination polymers

Abstract Gas chromatography can be based on very different types of stationary phase materials such as porous crystalline, polymeric or even liquid materials. These materials are not supposed to change significantly when brought into contact with the analytes to be investigated. Analytes may overload the stationary phase which changes the interaction between analyte and stationary phase causing often tailing or fronting in the detected peaks. In contrast to these unintended effects, new materials such as flexible porous crystalline coordination polymers can be utilized as stationary phase allowing the crystal structure to undergo transformation induced by the analytes. Depending on the analyte concentration, even a complete collaps of the porous structure can be achieved. The generic theoretical investigation presented will address the possible effects caused by state-dependent transformations of stationary phases. A first experimental realization of such a system with a well-known metal-organic framework (MOF) demonstrating unconventional chromatographic behavior was also generated and investigated.