Effect of temperature on the mechanism of retention of fullerenes in liquid chromatography using various alkyl bonded stationary phases

The temperature-dependency of the separation of fullerenes in liquid chromatography (LC) has been examined using various alkyl bonded stationary phases. It has been found that a maximum retention temperature exists with long alkyl bonded stationary phases, whereas there is no similar effect with the newly synthesized alkyl bonded phases which have two phenyl groups at the base of the bonded phase. The interpretation of the retention behavior of fullerenes in the low temperature region on alkyl bonded stationary phases is discussed using information obtained by CP-MAS solid-state NMR spectroscopy and LC.