Separation performance of graphene oxide as stationary phase for capillary gas chromatography

Graphene oxide (GO) has attracted extensive attention due to its unique properties and potential applications. Here, we report the investigation of GO nanosheets as a stationary phase for capillary gas chromatographic (GC) separations. The GO column, fabricated by a new one-step coating approach, showed average McReynolds constants of 308, suggesting the mediumpolar nature of the GC stationary phase. The GO stationary phase achieves good separation for analytes of different types with good peak shapes, especially for H-bonding analytes, such as alcohols and amines. The different retention behaviors of GO stationary phase from the conventional stationary phase may originate from its multiple interactions with analytes, involving H-bonding, dipole-dipole, π-π stacking and dispersive interactions. Moreover, GO column showed good separation reproducibility with relative standard deviation (RSD%) less than 0.24% (n = 5) on retention times of analytes.