Liquid Chromatographie separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with cerium(IV) oxide as packing material

Cerium oxide (CeO2) was evaluated as a column packing material for liquid chromatography. A pretreated CeO2 slurry was made in ethylene glycol and was forced into a stainless steel tube (125 × 4.6 mm) for 60 min at a constant pressure of ca. 550 kg/cm2. Naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene and chrysene were successfully separated using pure n-hexane as a mobile phase. The column efficiency is approximately 500 theoretical plates. The separation efficiency of the CeO2 column was compared with a commercial silica gel column. The main advantage of the CeO2 column was its improved separation efficiency for phenanthrene and pyrene.