Capillary column coated with graphene oxide as stationary phase for gas chromatography

[Display omitted] ► Capillary column was coated with GO via a simple chemical bonding. ► GO coating was used as stationary phase for GC separation. ► Various types of organic compounds were well separated on GO coated column. ► Separation efficiency as high as 1990 theoretical plates per meter for anisole was obtained. The graphene oxide (GO) is carbon based material that has high surface area, high adsorption ability, and is stable at high temperature. In this work, the GO phase was prepared and used for gas chromatographic separation. GO nanosheets were covalently bonded onto the inner surface of fused silica capillary column using 3-aminopropyldiethoxymethyl silane as cross-linking agent. The prepared GO nanosheets were characterized with TEM and the GO coating was characterized with SEM. As a high performance stationary phase, GO provides not only a high surface area to increase the phase ratio but also rich functional groups for the formation of hydrophobicity, hydrogen bonding, and π–π electrostatic stacking interactions with volatile aromatic or unsaturated organic compounds. Thus, mixtures of a wide range of organic compounds including alcohols and aromatic compounds were well separated and an efficiency of 1990 theoretical plates per meter for anisole was obtained on GO coated 1.0m×200μm i.d. fused silica capillary column. The experimental results demonstrate that GO coated capillary columns are promising for gas chromatographic separation.