Polystyrene-divinylbenzene-glycidyl methacrylate stationary phase grafted with poly (amidoamine) dendrimers for ion chromatography.

In this work, a novel ion exchange stationary phase based on different generations of poly (amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM) was developed for the determination of inorganic anions and carbohydrates. Synthesis of the PAMAM was carried out with the polymerization reaction of ethylenediamine and methyl acrylate. The synthesized PAMAM was then grafted to the polystyrene-divinylbenzene-glycidyl methacrylate (PS-GMA) to form PAMAM-based beads. These beads were finally modified with 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether (BDDE) to generate the anion exchanger, which were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), brunauer-emmett-teller (BET), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and elemental analysis. Elemental analysis, breakthrough curves and capacity factors showed that more epoxy groups and higher PAMAM generations in stationary phase could result in higher anion exchange capacity. The efficiency, durability and stability of the proposed anion exchanger were investigated by using six inorganic anions (fluoride, chloride, nitrite, bromide, nitrate and sulfate) and four carbohydrates (trehalose, glucose, maltotriose and galacturonic acid) as analytes, respectively. The reliability of the proposed ion chromatographic stationary phase was demonstrated by determining the content of galacturonic acid in polysaccharides from Poria cocos and Atractylodes macrocephala. The relative standard deviations of retention time, peak height, and peak area for galacturonic acid were 0.39%, 1.22%, and 2.02%, respectively. The spiked recoveries were in the range of 88.29%-100.51% for plant polysaccharides. Due to the good structural homogeneity, intense internal porosity, biological compatibility and high density of active groups in PAMAM, this grafted stationary phase showed good ion-exchange characteristics, especially in biological charged molecules.