Performance and selectivity of dicyanuric-functionalized polycaprolactone as stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography

•Unique amphiphilic selectivity for apolar to polar analytes.•High-resolution capability for structural and positional isomers.•Good column inertness for analytes prone to peak tailing.

Dicyanuric-functionalized polycaprolactone (DPCL) was explored for its separation performance in gas chromatography (GC). The statically coated DPCL capillary column (0.25 mm, i.d.) showed column efficiency of 3460 plates/m determined by naphthalene at 120 °C. McReynolds constants and Abrahaḿs system constants were also determined to evaluate the polarity and possible molecular interactions of the stationary phase. As a result, DPCL column exhibited excellent separation performance for diverse types of analytes with good peak shapes. Most interestingly, it shows unique amphiphilic selectivity and high-resolution capability for both apolar to polar isomers. In addition, DPCL column had good column repeatability with the RSD values below 0.06% for run-to-run, 0.09-0.40% for day-to-day and 1.7-3.6% for column-to-column, and good thermal stability up to 280 °C. The high selectivity and resolving capability demonstrate the great advantages of the DPCL stationary phase for simultaneous determination of analytes of great variety in complex samples.