A hyperbranched polymer-based stationary phase for hydrophilic interaction chromatography

A polymer-based stationary phase functionalized with a hyperbranched coating for hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) is described. The stationary phase was prepared by grafting cysteamine onto hydrolyzed poly(glycidyl methacrylate-divinylbenzene) microspheres, followed by one-pot introduction of hyperbranched poly(thiol ether amine) through sequential "thiol-ene" and "epoxy-amine" click reactions. The resulting phase exhibits high hydrophilicity, as evidenced by its excellent dispersibility in aqueous solutions, and enables efficient separation of a broad range of polar analytes, including vitamins, amino acids, organic acids, and sugars. It follows a typical HILIC retention mechanism for model nucleosides. Notably, the column demonstrates a negligible bleed level under gradient elution mode with aqueous fraction up to 50%, which is approximately 2.1 to 554.8 times lower than that of commercial counterparts.