Self-assembled cyclodextrin-modified gold nanoparticles on silica beads as stationary phase for chiral liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction chromatography

• SiO2@Au-SH-β-CD core-shell structures were synthesized.
• The new phase shows good separation selectivity as a chiral stationary phase.
• The new phase was also used in HILIC to separate polar and hydrophilic compounds.
• The new CSP showed great potential in fast analysis.

A facile strategy based on self-assembly of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) (60±10 nm in size) on the surfaces of amino-functionalized porous silica spheres under mild conditions was proposed. The resulting material possessed a core-shell structure in which AuNPs were the shell and silica spheres were the core. Then, thiolated-β-cyclodextrin (SH-β-CD) was covalently attached onto the AuNPs as chiral selector for the enantioseparation. The resultant packing material was evaluated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The separations of nine pairs of enantiomers were achieved by using the new chiral stationary phase (CSP) in the reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) mode, respectively. The results showed the new CSP have more sufficient interaction with the analytes due to the existence of AuNPs on silica surfaces, resulting in faster mass transfer rate, compared with β-CD modified silica column. The result shed light on potential usage of chemical modified NPs as chiral selector for enantioseparation based on HPLC. In addition, the new phase was also used in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) to separate polar compounds and highly hydrophilic compounds.

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