Silica gel microspheres decorated with covalent triazine-based frameworks as an improved stationary phase for high performance liquid chromatography

A new stationary phase for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) applications based on silica gel microspheres decorated with covalent triazine-based frameworks (CTF-SiO2) composite has been reported here. In this new hybrid material, sheet-like covalent triazine-based frameworks (CTF) were grown onto the supporting silica spheres, in order to achieve improved chromatographic separation and selectivity. The new material was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. The chromatographic performance and retention mechanism of the new stationary phase were investigated in reversed-phase mode and compared against standard C18 and cyano-modified silica (CN-SiO2) columns. A variety of different probe molecules were analyzed, including mono-substituted benzenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, anilines and bases. The synergism of triazine and aromatic moieties provided several different retention mechanisms, thus improving the selectivity in the CTF-SiO2 composite. The good column packing properties of the uniform silica microspheres combined with the separation ability of the CTF frameworks make the new CTF-SiO2 material a potentially useful stationary phase for the analysis of complex samples.