Carbon nanotubes on HPLC silica microspheres

Here we describe the preparation and characterization of hybrid materials composed by shortened single-walled nanotubes and sidewall derivatized multi-walled nanotubes deposited on the external surface of HPLC mesoporous spherical silica particles. The resulting materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and used in high performance liquid chromatography experiments under a broad range of experimental conditions (organic and water based eluents, variable temperature). Compared to a pure graphitic porous carbon packing, our materials show less pronounced hydrophobicity and are suitable for the analysis of polar compounds with water based eluents.