Micro gas chromatographic column with copper benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate modified by multilayer fluorinated graphene as a stationary phase.

A composite material was synthesized at room temperature by performing modification of the copper benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (HKUST-1) metal-organic framework material by multilayer fluorinated graphene (FG). The FG-HKUST-1 composite was used as a stationary phase for a micro gas chromatography column (μGCC) fabricated using micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technology. The separation results showed that the μGCC with the FG-HKUST-1 composite stationary phase achieved a baseline separation of C1-C4 in 8 min. The retention factors for C2-C4 were 2.13, 7.14, and 12.04, respectively. The maximum relative standard deviation (RSD) of the retention times was 0.14 %. The difference in the retention time between methane and ethane was 1.11 min, with a resolution of 9.2 for methane and ethane. The retention factor of ethane and the resolution of methane and ethane were increased by 166 % and 114 %. Therefore, this μGCC is promising for separating light hydrocarbons with widely differing concentrations.