Progress in stationary phases modified with carbonaceous nanomaterials for high-performance liquid chromatography

• Carbonaceous nanomaterials (CNMs) are useful for preparing HPLC stationary phases.
• Carbonaceous nanomaterials are classified according to their structures.
• We describe in detail processes for synthesizing carbonaceous nanomaterials.
• We review characterization and LC evaluation of CNM-based stationary phases.
• We set out trends and perspectives on CNM-based stationary phases.

Carbonaceous nanomaterials (CNMs) are prevalent in many disciplines. In separation science, CNMs have made great contributions to the innovation of stationary phases for various chromatographic technologies. In this review article, we present an up-to-date overview of the development of stationary phases based on CNMs for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). We devote a large part of this review to the accomplishments in the past five years with regard to retention and selectivity offered by new HPLC stationary phases modified with different types of CNMs, mainly including carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, nanographene and nanodiamonds. We pay specific attention to the approaches to chemical immobilization involving different types of CNM in synthesizing stationary phases.