Synthesis of Periodic Mesoporous Ethanesilica and Its Application in High Performance Liquid Chromatography

The periodic mesoporous ethanesilica (PME) was synthesized in acidic medium by the condensation of 1,2-bis (trimethoxysily) ethane using triblock copolymer EO20PO70EO20 (P123) as template, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as co-surfactant and ethanol as co-solvent. The results of nitrogen-sorption measurement, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) show that the PME has high surface area (1152 m2/g), narrow pore-size distribution, ordered pore structure, and spherical morphology. The spherical PME without further chemical modification was used as the stationary phase in reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Highly efficient and rapid separation of the mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, naphthalene, biphenyl, phenanthrene, and pyrene) was obtained on the column packed with the PME.