Superhydrophobic fluorinated microspheres for fluorous affinity chromatography

A halloysite nanotubes-based hybrid fluorous monolith as the mixed-mode sorbent for hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions and its application for analysis of antibiotics from milk powder and milk samples

Determining the hydrophilic and hydrophobic antibiotics in milk and related products poses significant challenges due to their polarity differences and trace levels. Herein, we proposed a halloysite nanotubes-based hybrid fluorous monolith (HNTs-PFOTS monolith) as a sorbent for spin-tip solid-phase extraction (SPE). Leveraging the perfluorooctyl groups of the HNTs-PFOTS monolith, antibiotics can be adsorbed through hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions. An analytical method was developed by combining the HNTs-PFOTS monolith-based spin-tip SPE method with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Under optimized conditions, the method exhibited excellent purification capabilities, low detection limits (0.01-0.03 μg/kg), high recoveries (80.0-112.3 %), and satisfactory reproducibility (intra-day RSDs of 0.4-8.8 % and inter-day RSDs of 1.0-10.9 %) for hydrophilic and hydrophobic antibiotics in milk and milk product samples. This study offers a novel approach for developing sorbents targeting antibiotics and provides a new analytical method for determining hydrophilic and hydrophobic antibiotics in food products.

Design and Synthesis of Fluorine-Containing Embedded Carbon Dots Stationary Phase for Separation of Versatile Analytes

Thus far, numerous new stationary phases have been developed. A fluorine-containing embedded carbon dots (F3-CDs-SiO2) stationary phase was first designed and synthesized. The resulting F3-CDs-SiO2 stationary phase was characterized carefully by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller experiment. The F3-CDs-SiO2 stationary phase was slurry packed into the HPLC column (150 × 2.1 mm) for evaluation. Furthermore, the F3-CDs-SiO2 column was successfully used for separation of pesticides, nucleosides, sulfonamides, alkaloids, and alkylbenzenes. The retention mechanism (including hydrophobic interaction, F-F, hydrogen bond interaction, ion-exchange, dipole-dipole interaction, electrostatic interaction, etc.) was investigated carefully. Meanwhile, the F3-SiO2 stationary phase was synthesized and used to evaluate the role of CDs. Furthermore, various commercial stationary phases (including amino-SiO2, diol-SiO2, C18-SiO2, and PFP-SiO2) were used for comparison. Moreover, the F3-CDs-SiO2 column possessed good repeatability, reproducibility, and stability in separation of versatile analytes.

Photo-induced synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles and chemiluminescent degradable materials via flow chemistry

We report the photo-induced, additive-free, continuous synthesis of polymeric particles using flow chemistry. Not only can these particles be formed under ambient conditions in a solely light-induced precipitation polymerisation, they can be prepared via continuous flow techniques to up-scale the synthetic process. We carefully assess the flow chemical parameters and analyse the resulting particles quantitatively using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Particle formation is a direct result of the step-growth polymerisation via a photochemically induced AA + BB Diels-Alder reaction, which we herein base on the dialdehyde monomer (AA) derived from the sustainable precursor, thymol. By employing a peroxyoxalate bismaleimide (BB), we introduce particles that can be selectively degraded on-demand, self-reported by light emission through chemiluminescence.