Design and Synthesis of Fluorine-Containing Embedded Carbon Dots Stationary Phase for Separation of Versatile Analytes

Thus far, numerous new stationary phases have been developed. A fluorine-containing embedded carbon dots (F3-CDs-SiO₂) stationary phase was first designed and synthesized. The resulting F3-CDs-SiO₂ stationary phase was characterized carefully by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller experiment. The F3-CDs-SiO₂ stationary phase was slurry packed into the HPLC column (150 × 2.1 mm) for evaluation. Furthermore, the F3-CDs-SiO₂ column was successfully used for separation of pesticides, nucleosides, sulfonamides, alkaloids, and alkylbenzenes. The retention mechanism (including hydrophobic interaction, F-F, hydrogen bond interaction, ion-exchange, dipole-dipole interaction, electrostatic interaction, etc.) was investigated carefully. Meanwhile, the F3-SiO₂ stationary phase was synthesized and used to evaluate the role of CDs. Furthermore, various commercial stationary phases (including amino-SiO₂, diol-SiO₂, C18-SiO₂, and PFP-SiO₂) were used for comparison. Moreover, the F3-CDs-SiO₂ column possessed good repeatability, reproducibility, and stability in separation of versatile analytes.