A facile creation of hydrophilic-lipophilic-balanced covalent organic frameworks with mixed-mode retention mechanisms for multiple applications in liquid chromatography

Currently, high-performance liquid chromatographic separation materials that can provide multiple retention mechanisms are highly favored. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have undoubtedly demonstrated promising application prospects in chromatographic separation on account of excellent stability and porosity. Nevertheless, the utilization of COFs as liquid chromatographic fillers is still in the early stages of development. Especially, developing powerful COF@SiO2 with versatile separation capabilities still poses certain difficulties. Herein, a hydrophilic-lipophilic-balanced imine-linked COF was synthesized and in-situ growth on the amino-modified silica microsphere to obtain a multifunctional TAPT-TP-COF@SiO2 composite material. The synergistic effect of multiple functional groups including hydroxyl, amino, aldehyde, triazine and aromatic ring in the TAPT-TP-COF provided multiple retention mechanisms. The selection of 2,4,6-triformylphloroglucinol (TP) as the aldehyde counterpart improved the hydrophilic effect of the developed COF-based separation material, which enabled the effective separation of hydrophilic analytes (nucleosides, sulfonamides and vitamins). The novel TAPT-TP-COF@SiO2 column displayed typical reverse-phase and hydrophilic interaction chromatographic retention behavior. The successful applications demonstrated that TAPT-TP-COF@SiO2 had enormous potential for efficient liquid chromatographic analysis.