Abstract
Nine different 25% cyanobiphenyl‐substituted polysiloxane (CBP) stationary phases were evaluated for use in gas and supercritical fluid chromatography. They were easily coated and cross‐linked on fused silica capillaries to produce highly efficient columns. For a 200 μm i.d. column, an efficiency of as high as 5,100 plates m^−1^ was obtained. For most of the new phases, the upper temperature limit was 300°C. A comparative study of the chromatographic behaviors of the cyanobiphenyl and commercial reference phases was made. Some of the cyanobiphenyl stationary phases showed polarities higher than those for carbowax 20M or 50% cyanopropyl. All six positional isomers of dodecylxylene and the five isomers of four‐ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were baseline resolved on GC capillary columns with certain of the cyanobiphenyl phases, demonstrating higher selectivity over SE‐54 or Carbowax 20M phases. In SFC, a cyanobiphenyl column provided better separation of a standard coal tar sample than columns with biphenyl or cyanopropyl phases. The retention behavior of fatty acid methyl esters and a mixture of polar solutes was investigated on the cyanobiphenyl and references phases. With respect to certain solute pairs, the selectivities of the new stationary phases were found to increase with temperature. The new cyanobiphenyl phases were found to be useful for GC and SFC separations of various classes of complex mixtures including essential oils, explosives, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.