Abstract
The dissertation is to emphasize the feasibility of open-tubular capillary electrochromatography (OT-CEC), combining gold nanoparticle self assembly (SA) technique with capillary electrophoresis (CE). The capillary inner wall stationary phase was fabricated through layer-by-layer (LBL) of gold nanoparticles and alkanedithiol, and subsequent bonded alkanethiol on the end of gold nanoparticle. The size distribution of the spherical gold nanoparticles is about 13 nm, which is determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) photograph. Also the capillary of alkanethiol-modified gold nanoparticles was successfully characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image. The electrochromatographic behavior of the novel CEC column was obtained by separating three steroids (testosterone, progesterone and testosterone propionate) as model compounds, through variation of the number of gold nanoparticles layers, the chain length of the alkanedithiol and alkanethiol, the percentage of organic modifier, and the ionic strength and pH of running buffer. The results show that the separation efficiency is improved as gold nanoparticle layers increase, and a better resolution is obtained with longer alkyl chain of alkanedithiol and alkanethiol. Finally, the CEC system can successfully separate four PAHs (naphthalene, fluorine, phenanthrene and pyrene) under the optimum conditions.