Study of polar and nonpolar substituted benzenes and aromatic isomers on carbon-coated zirconia and alkyl bonded phases

Retention factors of polar and non-polar mono- and di-substituted benzene derivatives were measured on carbon coated zirconia (C/ZrO2) and an alkyl modified silica using water–acetonitrile mobile phases. Published data on porous graphitic carbon phases (PGC) were used to facilitate comparisons between the two types of carbon media. This work showed that retention on both C/ZrO2 and PGC is much more sensitive to the solute polarizability, dipolarity, and shape than on aliphatic phases. For simple disubstituted benzenes there was no general clear cut advantage in terms of chromatographic selectivity to using a carbon-based phase over a bonded phase silica; however, the selectivities towards such isomers are quite different on the two types of media. In contradistinction to their effect on alkyl bonded phase retention, addition of a dipolar substituent and weak hydrogen bond acceptor to a benzene ring almost always increases the solute’s retention on C/ZrO2 and PGC.