Due to their excellent stability, low toxicity, flexible modification and adjustable functionality, carbon dots (CDs) have a promising application prospect in the field of chromatographic stationary phases. Hydrogels are new functional polymer materials with three-dimensional network structure that have excellent hydrophilicity, high porosity and unique mechanical properties, which are also good candidate materials for liquid chromatography. Nevertheless, a review of the literature reveals that CDs based nanocomposite hydrogels have not yet been reported as HPLC stationary phases. In this work, amphiphilic CDs with multiple functional groups and polyacrylic acid hydrogel were grafted to the surface of silica gel by an in-situ polymerization method, and a CDs/polyacrylic acid nanocomposite hydrogel stationary phase (CDs/hydrogel@SiO) was prepared. CDs act as the macroscopic cross-linking agents to form a cross-linked network with polyacrylic acid chains through physical cross-linking by hydrogen bonding and chemical cross-linking by amidation and esterification reactions, which not only improve the swelling property of the hydrogel but also increase its stability. Additionally, the introduction of CDs with multifunctional groups modulates the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance of the hydrogel that also imparts good hydrophobicity to the composite hydrogel. Through the study of retention mechanism and influencing factors, it is certificate that the CDs/hydrogel@SiO has mixed-mode chromatographic performance. Furthermore, the CDs/hydrogel@SiO column shows great potential for the determination of organic contaminants in environmental water samples. This work confirms the potential application of CDs/hydrogel composite for the separation of various samples and provides the possibility of developing CDs based nanocomposite hydrogel in the field of liquid chromatography. Introducing CDs into hydrogel can open up a new way for nanocomposite hydrogels to be used in HPLC, which expands the advance of hydrogel and CDs in separation field.

中文翻译：

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探索基于两亲性碳点的纳米复合水凝胶在液相色谱分离中的潜在应用

碳点（CDs）由于其优异的稳定性、低毒性、灵活的改性和可调节的功能，在色谱固定相领域具有广阔的应用前景。水凝胶是具有三维网络结构的新型功能高分子材料，具有优异的亲水性、高孔隙率和独特的力学性能，也是液相色谱的良好候选材料。然而，文献综述表明，基于 CD 的纳米复合水凝胶尚未被报道为 HPLC 固定相。本工作通过原位聚合方法将具有多官能团的两亲性CDs与聚丙烯酸水凝胶接枝到硅胶表面，制备了CDs/聚丙烯酸纳米复合水凝胶固定相（CDs/Hydrogel@SiO）。 CDs作为宏观交联剂，通过氢键物理交联和酰胺化、酯化反应化学交联与聚丙烯酸链形成交联网络，不仅提高了水凝胶的溶胀性能，而且也增加其稳定性。此外，具有多功能基团的CD的引入调节了水凝胶的亲水-疏水平衡，这也赋予了复合水凝胶良好的疏水性。通过保留机理和影响因素的研究，证明CDs/水凝胶@SiO具有混合模式色谱性能。此外，CDs/Hydrogel@SiO柱在测定环境水样中的有机污染物方面显示出巨大的潜力。这项工作证实了CDs/水凝胶复合材料在分离各种样品方面的潜在应用，并为在液相色谱领域开发基于CDs的纳米复合水凝胶提供了可能性。将CDs引入到水凝胶中可以为纳米复合水凝胶应用于HPLC开辟一条新途径，拓展了水凝胶和CDs在分离领域的进展。