Hydrothermal carbonaceous sphere based stationary phase for anion exchange chromatography

Monodisperse carbonaceous spheres produced by the hydrothermal carbonization of sucrose were first applied as green stationary phase for ion chromatography after quaternization. Depending on the polycondensation of methylamine and 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether, polymer containing quaternary ammonium groups were facilely grafted onto the surfaces of hydrothermal carbonaceous spheres (HCSs). The quaternized HCSs with different number of polyelectrolyte layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, brunauer-emmett-teller, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and elemental analysis. The measurements of breakthrough curves demonstrated that more layers of grafted polyelectrolyte resulted in higher anion exchange capacity of stationary phase. With good stability, common inorganic anions, monocarboxylic acids, polarizable anions and carbohydrates were effectively separated on the stationary phases, respectively. The high hydrophilicity of HCS surface afforded excellent peak symmetry for all analytes. Furthermore, high-capacity HCSs stationary phase was successfully applied to detect fluoride in tea samples.