Versatile ligands for high-performance liquid chromatography: An overview of ionic liquid-functionalized stationary phases

• Ionic liquids (ILs) are amazing ligands for HPLC stationary phases.
• IL-functionalized materials are classified according to HPLC modes.
• We illustrate strategies for preparation of IL-functionalized stationary phases.
• We describe characterizations and LC evaluations of IL-based stationary phases.
• We put forward trends and perspectives on IL-based stationary phases.

Ionic liquids (ILs), a class of unique substances composed purely by cation and anions, are renowned for their fascinating physical and chemical properties, such as negligible volatility, high dissolution power, high thermal stability, tunable structure and miscibility. They are enjoying ever-growing applications in a great diversity of disciplines.IL-modified silica, transforming the merits of ILs into chromatographic advantages, has endowed the development of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stationary phase with considerable vitality. In the last decade, IL-functionalized silica stationary phases have evolved into a series of branches to accommodate to different HPLC modes. An up-to-date overview of IL-immobilized stationary phases is presented in this review, and divided into five parts according to application mode, i.e., ion-exchange, normal-phase, reversed-phase, hydrophilic interaction and chiral recognition. Specific attention is channeled to synthetic strategies, chromatographic behavior and separation performance of IL-functionalized silica stationary phases.

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