Design and\nSynthesis of Fluorine-Containing Embedded\nCarbon Dots Stationary Phase for Separation of Versatile Analytes

Thus far, numerous new stationary phases have been developed.\nA\nfluorine-containing embedded carbon dots (F3-CDs-SiO<sub>2</sub>)\nstationary phase was first designed and synthesized. The resulting\nF3-CDs-SiO<sub>2</sub> stationary phase was characterized carefully\nby scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy,\nelemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller\nexperiment. The F3-CDs-SiO<sub>2</sub> stationary phase was slurry\npacked into the HPLC column (150 × 2.1 mm) for evaluation. Furthermore,\nthe F3-CDs-SiO<sub>2</sub> column was successfully used for separation\nof pesticides, nucleosides, sulfonamides, alkaloids, and alkylbenzenes.\nThe retention mechanism (including hydrophobic interaction, F–F,\nhydrogen bond interaction, ion-exchange, dipole–dipole interaction,\nelectrostatic interaction, etc.) was investigated carefully. Meanwhile,\nthe F3-SiO<sub>2</sub> stationary phase was synthesized and used to\nevaluate the role of CDs. Furthermore, various commercial stationary\nphases (including amino-SiO<sub>2</sub>, diol-SiO<sub>2</sub>, C18-SiO<sub>2</sub>, and PFP-SiO<sub>2</sub>) were used for comparison. Moreover,\nthe F3-CDs-SiO<sub>2</sub> column possessed good repeatability, reproducibility,\nand stability in separation of versatile analytes.