Hexagonal boron nitride stationary phase for gas chromatography

This work describes the separation performance of utilizing hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as the stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography (GC). The statically coated h-BN column showed moderate polarity and achieved column efficiencies of 3455 plates/m and 3800 plates/m for naphthalene and n-dodecane, respectively. With temperature-dependent structure properties, the h-BN stationary phase exhibited stronger retention for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) over phthalic acid esters (PAEs) and showed advantageous separation performance over the g-C3N4 and commercial polysiloxane stationary phases. Moreover, it displayed preferential retention for halogenated analytes and high resolution performance for structural and positional isomers. In addition, the h-BN column showed good column repeatability with relative standard deviation (RSD) values of 0.03%-0.07% for run-to-run, 0.31%-0.71% for day-to-day and 2.6%-5.3% for column-to-column, respectively, and thermal stability up to 260 °C.