In situ one-pot synthesis of polydopamine/octadecylamine co-deposited coating in capillary for open-tubular capillary electrochromatography

Abstract Mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) based materials are attractive as stationary phase for open-tubular capillary electrochromatography (OT-CEC) due to their many fascinating properties. However, all of the existing strategies for fabricating PDA based OT-CEC columns are limited in aqueous solutions. Consequently, it is a challenge work to directly immobilize the hydrophobic functional materials onto the inner wall of PDA modified capillary. Herein, by using the organic amine-inducing co-deposition strategy, a novel preparative method was developed for in situ one-pot synthesis of PDA/octadecylamine (ODA) co-deposited coating inside capillary as OT-CEC stationary phase. The formation and morphology of the PDA/ODA co-deposited coating were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscope, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and contact angle measurements. The separation performance of the fabricated PDA/ODA modified columns was validated by the separation of alkylbenzenes and steroids, which could achieve baseline separation with high separation efficiency. Their separation was found to follow the reversed phase chromatographic retention mechanism. The co-deposited column showed good stability and long lifetime. The repeatability of the PDA/ODA co-deposited column was also evaluated, with the relative standard deviations for intra-day and inter-day runs less than 5% and column-to-column runs less than 6%.