Preparation and characterization of glucose-based covalent organic polymer coated silica as stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatography.

Carbohydrate is a renewable, sustainable, hydrophilic, and biodegradable natural product, which is widely used in the field of adsorption. In this study, a glucose-based covalent organic polymer (COP) coated silica was fabricated by facile solvent knitting reaction between tetrabenzylglucose and silica-phenyl with anhydrous aluminum trichloride as catalyst, forming a core-shell stationary phase (donated as SiO@COP) for high performance liquid chromatography. The prepared SiO@COP was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, solid-state C nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and N adsorption-desorption experiments. Owing to the coexistence of benzene units and alkyl, hydroxyl and ether groups in the skeleton of COP shell, the developed chromatographic packing exhibited reversed-phase/hydrophilic interaction mixed-mode with multiple retention mechanisms, such as hydrophobic, π-π, hydrogen bonding, and electron donor-acceptor interactions. The results revealed that the SiO@COP column demonstrated excellent selectivity and retention behavior for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds with good repeatability and stability. Meanwhile, the chromatographic performance of the prepared SiO@COP column was compared with a C column to assess the role of the coating COP shell. Therefore, the development of the SiO@COP stationary phase expands the potential application of COPs in separation field.