Layer-by-layer assembly of polyelectrolyte and graphene oxide for open-tubular capillary electrochromatography.

In this paper, open-tubular capillary column coated with graphene oxide (GO) was prepared through ionic adsorption of negatively charged GO nanosheets onto the capillary wall pre-modified with positively charged poly(diallydimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA). Thus prepared coating was very stable and could endure over 200 separations. The electroosmotic flow (EOF) characteristics of bare fused silica capillary column, PDDA coated column, and GO-PDDA coated column (GO-PDDA@column) were investigated by varying the percentage of methanol in buffer and the buffer pH value. The run-to-run, day-to-day, and column-to-column reproducibilities of EOF on GO-PDDA@column were satisfying with relative standard deviation values of less than 2% in all cases. The stationary phase displays a characteristic reversed-phase behavior. The GO-PDDA@column was also used to separate proteins in egg white. Both basic and acidic proteins were separated in a single run.