Layer-by-layer coating and chemical cross-linking of multilayer polysaccharides on silica for mixed-mode HPLC application.

A facile, controllable and environmentally friendly method for fabricating a novel polysaccharide-silica composite stationary phase (SiO2@(HA-CS)12) was developed in this report. Two natural polysaccharides (hyaluronan acid and chitosan) were controllably coated on the silica surface using a layer-by-layer assembly technique, and then the polysaccharide shell was chemically cross-linked to improve the stability. The column efficiency of the SiO2@(HA-CS)12 column reached 74 000 plates per m in HILIC mode and 20 100 plates per m in IEC mode, which indicates great potential for separating polar and charged samples.