title: Preparation and characterization of carbon dot-decorated silica stationary phase in deep eutectic solvents for hydrophilic interaction chromatography.
abstract: In this paper, N-doped carbon dots (NCDs) were successfully decorated on the spherical porous silica surface in deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as a novel class of green solvents. The appropriate density and hydrophility of DESs guaranteed the fine dispersibility of silica particles and NCDs, resulting in a homogeneous and thin layer of NCDs immobilization. As compared with traditional organic solvents (DMF and THF), higher surface coverage was obtained in the medium of DES, proving its feasibility as a new kind of alternative solvent for hydrophilic nanomaterial-based surface modification of silica spheres. The resulting NCDs-decorated silica particles (Sil-NCDs) were characterized in detail and packed into chromatographic columns to study their initial feasibility as adsorbent material for liquid chromatography. The resultant packing materials demonstrate a selective behavior for polar compounds in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) mode. This work gives a typical example of using carbon dots as stationary phase component, and such material is hopeful to be used in other research fields such as solid absorbents, recycling catalysts, and solid-state electrochemistry etc. Graphical Abstract N-doped carbon dots (NCDs) were successfully coupled on the surface of porous silica spheres in a green strategy using deep eutectic solvents (DES) as media for HILIC.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources, CAS / Key Laboratory for Natural Medicines of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China.
authors.forename: Haijuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources, CAS / Key Laboratory for Natural Medicines of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources, CAS / Key Laboratory for Natural Medicines of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China.
authors.forename: Tianpei
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources, CAS / Key Laboratory for Natural Medicines of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources, CAS / Key Laboratory for Natural Medicines of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China.
authors.forename: Zhan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Chemistry of Northwestern Plant Resources, CAS / Key Laboratory for Natural Medicines of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China. hdqiu@licp.cas.cn.|State Key Laboratory for Oxo Synthesis and Selective Oxidation, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730000, China. hdqiu@licp.cas.cn.
authors.forename: Hongdeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qiu
keywords: Carbon dots; Deep eutectic solvents; High-performance liquid chromatography; Stationary phase