A novel sorbent for chromatographic separations: A silica matrix modified with non‐covalently bonded tetrakis(β‐cyclodextrin)–porphyrin conjugates

We prepared new phases for LC that consisted of silica modified with non-covalently bonded tetrakis(β-cyclodextrin)-porphyrin (where cyclodextrin is CD) conjugates. The effects of the porphyrin core, type of spacer and β-CD moieties on the behaviours of the modified phases for the separation of aromatic compounds (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, propylbenzene, butylbenzene, pentylbenzene, o-terphenyl, triphenylene, phenol and caffeine) and fluorinated aromatic compounds (pentafluorobenzonitrile, pentafluoronitrobenzene and hexafluorobenzene) were studied using the Tanaka test. The results indicate that the non-covalent substitution of silica with CD-based macromolecules that have a porphyrin core can be a very effective method for preparing novel sorbents with specific chromatographic properties for applications in LC.