Non-covalent functionalisation of monolithic silica for the development of carbon nanotube HPLC stationary phases

In this paper, an effective and simple method was used for the immobilization of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on a monolithic HPLC material containing 2 mu m macropore sizes and 13 nm mesopore sizes. The chromatographic support was coated with ultra short SWCNTs in a noncovalent way to preserve the sp(2) nanotube structure and thus their physico-chemical properties. It was demonstrated that the amino-surface of the monolith stabilized with 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone efficiently and stably adsorbed SWCNTs onto the chromatographic support. It was shown that this novel stationary phase was very useful for the HPLC isocratic mode separation of a series of small aromatic compounds in a very short analysis time. The comparison with a classical equivalent C18 monolithic column showed that the SWCNT column presented the best efficiency in similar chromatographic conditions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.