Separation Mechanism of Polychlorinated Biphenyls from Insulating Oil on Gel Permeation Chromatography with Poly(vinyl alcohol) Gel

• Published in: BUNSEKI KAGAKU Vol. 57; no. 12; pp. 1019 - 1026
• Main Authors: Sawatsubashi, Tetsuya, Tsukahara, Chisato, Baba, Keigo, Hashimoto, Tomoko, Shinoda, Akiko, Ohi, Etsumasa, Honma, Yoshio, Miura, Norio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry 01.12.2008
• Subjects: gel permeation chromatography; polychlorinated biphenyls; polyvinyl alcohol; van't Hoff plot
• ISSN: 0525-1931
• DOI: 10.2116/bunsekikagaku.57.1019

We studied the separation mechanism of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) from insulating oil by using an acetone mobile-phase on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel, which is used as a high-performance PCB clean-up material for gel permeation chromatography. Based on the results of measurements on each elution characteristic for various organic compounds, such as aliphatic hydrocarbons, alkylbenzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and their chlorinated derivatives, it has been confirmed that the partition mode and the size exclusion mode work exclusively for the elution of PCB and insulating oil, respectively, from PVA gel. It has also been observed that the elution position for each organic compound examined here varies roughly linearly with its inorganic value/organic value, used as an index in an organic conceptional diagram. Thus, PCB can be completely separated from insulating oil by its strong partition on PVA gel, because the index of the inorganic value/organic value of PCB is much higher than that of insulating oil. This separation mechanism is also explained well by using thermodynamic data (ΔH) estimated from the slope of a van't Hoff plot. As a result, the separation characteristic on PVA gel can be evaluated by using the index of the inorganic value/organic value as well as a thermodynamic data.