Preparation of a butyl–silica hybrid monolithic column with a “one-pot” process for bioseparation by capillary liquid chromatography

A butyl–silica hybrid monolithic column for bioseparation by capillary liquid chromatography (cLC) was prepared with butyl methacrylate and alkoxysilanes through a “one-pot” process. The effects of polycondensation temperature, volume percentage of N,N′-dimethylformamide, and content of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and butyl methacrylate on the morphologies of the hybrid monolithic columns prepared were investigated in detail. Baseline separations of proteins and small peptides on the hybrid monolithic column were achieved by cLC with gradient elution. In addition, the resulting hybrid column was also applied for analysis of tryptic digests of bovine serum albumin by cLC coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. The results demonstrate its potential application in separation of complex biological samples.     

High-efficiency peptide analysis on monolithic multimode capillary columns: Pressure-assisted capillary electrochromatography/capillary electrophoresis coupled to UV and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry

High-efficiency peptide analysis using multimode pressure-assisted capillary electrochromatography/capillary electrophoresis (pCEC/pCE) monolithic polymeric columns and the separation of model peptide mixtures and protein digests by isocratic and gradient elution under an applied electric field with UV and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) detection is demonstrated. Capillary multipurpose columns were prepared in silanized fused-silica capillaries of 50, 75, and 100 microm inner diameters by thermally induced in situ copolymerization of methacrylic monomers in the presence of n-propanol and formamide as porogens and azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. N-Ethylbutylamine was used to modify the chromatographic surface of the monolith from neutral to cationic. Monolithic columns were termed as multipurpose or multimode columns because they showed mixed modes of separation mechanisms under different conditions. Anion-exchange separation ability in the liquid chromatography (LC) mode can be determined by the cationic chromatographic surface of the monolith. At acidic pH and high voltage across the column, the monolithic stationary phase provided conditions for predominantly capillary electrophoretic migration of peptides. At basic pH and electric field across the column, enhanced chromatographic retention of peptides on monolithic capillary column made CEC mechanisms of migration responsible for separation. The role of pressure, ionic strength, pH, and organic content of the mobile phase on chromatographic performance was investigated. High efficiencies (exceeding 300 000 plates/m) of the monolithic columns for peptide separations are shown using volatile and nonvolatile, acidic and basic buffers. Good reproducibility and robustness of isocratic and gradient elution pressure-assisted CEC/CE separations were achieved for both UV and ESI-MS detection. Manipulation of the electric field and gradient conditions allowed high-throughput analysis of complex peptide mixtures. A simple design of sheathless electrospray emitter provided effective and robust low dead volume interfacing of monolithic multimode columns with ESI-MS. Gradient elution pressure-assisted mixed-mode separation CE/CEC-ESI-MS mass fingerprinting and data-dependent pCE/pCEC-ESI-MS/MS analysis of a bovine serum albumin (BSA) tryptic digest in less than 5 min yielding high sequence coverage (73%) demonstrated the potential of the method.     

溶胶-凝胶法制备毛细管硅胶整体柱的研究进展

毛细管硅胶整体柱作为一种新型的分离介质,在色谱领域显示出了强大的生命力。本评述介绍了溶胶-凝胶法制备毛细管硅胶整体柱的方法,重点分析了溶胶-凝胶法制备毛细管硅胶整体柱的影响因素,总结了近几年毛细管硅胶整体柱在高效液相色谱和电色谱中的应用。     

Design of the monolithic polymers used in capillary electrochromatography columns

Monolithic columns for capillary electrochromatography (CEC) are receiving quite remarkable attention. Both the simplicity of the in situ preparation and the large number of readily available chemistries make the monolithic separation media a vital alternative to capillary columns packed with particulate materials. This review summarizes the current state-of-the-art in this rapidly growing area of CEC with a focus on monolithic capillary columns prepared from synthetic polymers. Recent achievements in column technologies for both high-performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis are used as the starting point to highlight the influence of these well established analytical methods on the development of monolithic capillary columns for CEC. The effects of individual variables on the separation properties of monolithic capillaries are discussed in detail. The analytical potential of these columns is demonstrated with separations involving various families of compounds in different chromatographic modes.     

新型有机-无机杂化整体柱的制备及其在毛细管液相色谱及加压毛细管电色谱中的应用

以丙烯酰胺(AM)为单体,八乙烯基倍半硅氧烷(POSS)为交联剂,偶氮二异丁腈(AIBN)为引发剂,四氢呋喃(THF)为致孔剂,通过原位聚合法制备了poly(POSS-co-AM)有机-无机杂化整体柱,并对各反应物的配比进行了优化。结果表明,当功能单体与致孔剂、POSS与AM的质量比均为1.0: 5.0, AIBN的质量分数为0.1%时,杂化整体柱的柱效最高。无机材料的引入使整体柱结构均匀并具有良好的渗透性,该整体柱既能用于亲水色谱模式,也能用于反相色谱模式。将制备的整体柱用于毛细管液相色谱和加压毛细管电色谱分离核苷类、胺类、硝基苯胺类等化合物,获得了良好的效果。     

新型亲水整体柱的制备及其在毛细管液相色谱和加压电色谱中的应用

以N,N-二甲基-N-甲基丙烯酰胺基丙基-N,N-二甲基-N-丙烷磺酸内盐(SPP)为单体,季戊四醇三丙烯酸酯(PETA)为交联剂,偶氮二异丁腈(AIBN)为引发剂及两类不同的致孔剂(乙醇/乙二醇和甲醇/1,4-丁二醇)制备了两种新型亲水性整体柱。为了获得理想的柱效、电渗流速度和渗透性,对制备整体柱的各反应物配比进行了研究和优化。比较了两种整体柱在渗透性和分离样品方面的性能,结果表明,以乙醇/乙二醇为致孔剂制备的整体柱在柱效、分离度方面优于以甲醇/1,4-丁二醇为致孔剂制备的整体柱,但在渗透性方面不及后者。探讨了流动相中盐浓度对核苷类样品保留的影响,发现当甲酸铵浓度从10 mmol/L增加到70 mmol/L时,核苷样品的保留因子呈现先增加后减小的状态。将制备的整体柱用于毛细管液相色谱和加压电色谱分别分离胺类、酚类和核苷类样品,获得了理想的分离效果。在分离酚类和核苷类混合样品时,发现加压毛细管电色谱在分离度和分离速度上均优于毛细管液相色谱。     

Polymethacrylate monolithic columns for capillary liquid chromatography

In recent years, continuous separation media have attracted considerable attention because of the advantages they offer over packed columns. This research resulted in two useful monolithic material types, the first based on modified silica gel and the second on organic polymers. This work attempts to review advances in the development, characterization, and applications of monolithic columns based on synthetic polymers in capillary chromatography, with the main focus on monolithic beds prepared from methacrylate-ester based monomers. The polymerization conditions used in the production of polymethacrylate monolithic capillary columns are surveyed, with attention being paid to the concentrations of monomers, porogen solvents, and polymerization initiators as the system variables used to control the porous and hydrodynamic properties of the monolithic media. The simplicity of their preparation as well as the possibilities of controlling of their porous properties and surface chemistries are the main benefits of the polymer monolithic capillary columns in comparison to capillary columns packed with particulate materials. The application areas considered in this review concern mainly separations in reversed-phase chromatography, ion-exchange chromatography, hydrophobic and hydrophilic interaction modes; enzyme immobilization and sample preparation in the capillary chromatography format are also addressed.     

Monolithic column in gas chromatography

Monolithic columns invented in chromatographic praxis almost 40 years ago gained nowadays a lot of popularity in separations by liquid chromatographic technique. At the same time, application of monolithic columns in gas chromatography is less common and only a single review published by Svec et al. [1] covers this field of research. Since that time a lot of new findings on application and properties of monolithic columns in gas chromatography have been published in the literature deserving consideration and discussion. This review considers preparation of monolithic columns for GC, an impact of preparation conditions on column performance, optimization of separation conditions for GC analysis on monolithic columns and other important aspects of preparation and usage of monolithic capillary columns in GC. A final part of the review discusses the modern trends and possible applications in the future of capillary monolithic columns in GC.     

Applications of monolithic columns in gas chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography

Porous monoliths are well‐known stationary phases in high‐performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrochromatography. Contrastingly, their use in other types of separation methods such as gas or supercritical fluid chromatography is limited and scarce. In particular, very few studies address the use of monolithic columns in supercritical fluid chromatography. These are limited to silica‐based monoliths and will be covered in this review together with an underlying reason for this trend. The application of monoliths in gas chromatography has received much more attention and is well documented in two reviews by Svec and Kurganov published in 2008 and 2013, respectively. The most recent studies, covered in this review, build on the previous findings and on further understanding of the influence of preparation conditions on porous properties and chromatographic performance of poly(styrene‐co‐divinylbenzene), polymethacrylate, and silica‐based monolithic columns while expanding to polymer‐based monoliths with incorporated metal organic frameworks and to vinylized hybrid silica monoliths. In addition, the potential application of porous layer open tubular monolithic columns in low‐pressure gas chromatography will be addressed.     

Monolithic Stationary Phases for Capillary Electrochromatography Based on Synthetic Polymers: Designs and Applications

Monolithic materials have quickly become a well‐established stationary phase format in the field of capillary electrochromatography (CEC). Both the simplicity of their in situ preparation method and the large variety of readily available chemistries make the monolithic separation media an attractive alternative to capillary columns packed with particulate materials. This review summarizes the contributions of numerous groups working in this rapidly growing area, with a focus on monolithic capillary columns prepared from synthetic polymers. Various approaches employed for the preparation of the monoliths are detailed, and where available, the material properties of the resulting monolithic capillary columns are shown. Their chromatographic performance is demonstrated by numerous separations of different analyte mixtures in variety of modes. Although detailed studies of the effect of polymer properties on the analytical performance of monolithic capillaries remain scarce at this early stage of their development, this review also discusses some important relationships such as the effect of pore size on the separation performance in more detail.     

Development and application of polymeric monolithic stationary phases for capillary electrochromatography

Monolithic columns for capillary electrochromatography are receiving quite remarkable attention. This review summarizes results excerpted from numerous papers concerning this rapidly growing area with a focus on monoliths prepared from synthetic polymers. Both the simplicity of the in situ preparation and the large number of readily available chemistries make the monolithic separation media a vital alternative to capillary columns packed with particulate materials. Therefore, they are now a well-established stationary phase format in the field of capillary electrochromatography. A wide variety of synthetic approaches as well as materials used for the preparation of the monolithic stationary phases are presented in detail. The analytical potential of these columns is demonstrated with separations involving various families of compounds and different chromatographic modes.     

含多面体低聚倍半硅氧烷杂化毛细管整体柱的制备及修饰

本文采用自由基聚合法原位制备了两种杂化毛细管整体柱。首先以含有一个甲基丙烯酸基团的多面体低聚倍半硅氧烷(POSS)试剂(Bu-POSS)为单体、以含有多个甲基丙烯酸基团的POSS试剂(POSS-MA)为交联剂在二元致孔剂(正丙醇/聚乙二醇400)和引发剂(偶氮二异丁腈)存在下发生热引发聚合,在毛细管中形成聚(Bu-POSS-co-POSS-MA)杂化整体柱;另外仅以POSS-MA为单体在相同条件下制备聚(POSS-MA)杂化整体柱,并将这两种杂化整体柱应用于小分子的毛细管液相色谱(cLC)分析。结果表明,含POSS杂化整体柱具有制备简单、重现性好以及稳定性高的特点。此外,利用聚(POSS-MA)杂化整体柱表面剩余的甲基丙烯酸基团,可以将功能单体(甲基丙烯酸硬脂酸酯等)化学键合到整体柱上,不但可以提高色谱柱效,而且使其具有不同的选择性。本文所发展的以POSS试剂为原料采用自由基聚合法制备杂化整体柱的方法为新型杂化整体柱的制备提供了一种新思路。     

Organic polymer‐based monolithic capillary columns and their applications in food analysis

In recent years, the use of organic polymer monolithic capillary columns in separation science has gained popularity due to the fact that they are easy to fabricate and do not require retaining frits. These materials have been applied in different fields including foods, proteomics, and pharmaceuticals. The interest in food analysis still needs to develop in order to increase the sensitivity towards micro/nano‐scale food applications for food samples of < 5 μg (e.g., foodomics). In this regard, polymer monolithic capillary columns offer great separation capability in the food analytical separation science. We review the most important applications in food analysis using polymer monolithic capillary columns. In addition, several examples of the use of capillary separation methods combined with mass spectrometry detection in food analysis are summarized.     

Preparation and application of hydrophilic monolithic columns

Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) has experienced increasing attention in recent years. Much research has been carried out in the area of HILIC separation mechanisms, column techniques and applications. Because of their good permeability, low resistance to mass transfer and easy preparation within capillaries, hydrophilic monolithic columns represent a trend among novel HILIC column techniques. This review attempts to present an overview of the preparation and applications of HILIC monolithic columns carried out in the past decade. The separation mechanism of various hydrophilic monolithic stationary phases is also reviewed.     

An integrated serum proteomic approach capable of monitoring the low molecular weight proteome with sequencing of intermediate to large peptides

The low‐abundance, low molecular weight serum proteome has high potential for the discovery of new biomarkers using mass spectrometry (MS). Because the serum proteome is large and complex, defining relative quantitative differences for a molecular species between comparison groups requires an approach with robust separation capability, high sensitivity, as well as high mass resolution. Capillary liquid chromatography (cLC)/MS provides both the necessary separation technique and the sensitivity to observe many low‐abundance peptides. Subsequent identification of potential serum peptide biomarkers observed in the cLC/MS step can in principle be accomplished by in series cLC/MS/MS without further sample preparation or additional instrumentation. In this report a novel cLC/MS/MS method for peptide sequencing is described that surpasses previously reported size limits for amino acid sequencing accomplished by collisional fragmentation using a tandem time‐of‐flight MS instrument. As a demonstration of the approach, two low‐abundance peptides with masses of ～4000–5000 Da were selected for MS/MS sequencing. The multi‐channel analyzer (MCA) was used in a novel way that allowed for summation of 120 fragmentation spectra for each of several customized collision energies, providing more thorough fragmentation coverage of each peptide with improved signal to noise. The peak list from this composite analysis was submitted to Mascot for identification. The two index peptides, 4279 Da and 5061 Da, were successfully identified. The peptides were a 39 amino acid immunoglobulin G heavy chain variable region fragment and a 47 amino acid fibrin alpha isoform C‐terminal fragment. The method described here provides the ability both to survey thousands of serum molecules and to couple that with markedly enhanced cLC/MS/MS peptide sequencing capabilities, providing a promising technique for serum biomarker discovery. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Voltage-assisted capillary LC of peptides using monolithic capillary columns prepared by ring-opening metathesis polymerization

We examined the use of monolithic capillary columns prepared via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) for peptide separation in voltage-assisted capillary LC (voltage-assisted CLC). In order to demonstrate their potential for peptide separation, ROMP-derived monoliths with RP properties were prepared. The preparation procedure of monoliths was transferred from ROMP monoliths optimized for CLC. ROMP monoliths were synthesized within the confines of 200 microm id fused-silica capillaries with a length of 37 cm. After optimization of the chromatographic conditions, the separation performance was tested using a well-defined set of artificial peptides as well as two peptidic mixtures resulting from a tryptic digest of BSA as well as a collagenase digest of collagen. ROMP monoliths showed comparable performance to other monolithic separation media in voltage-assisted CLC published so far. Therefore, we conclude that by optimizing the composition of the ROMP monoliths as well as by using the controlled manner of their functionalization, ROMP monoliths bear a great potential in CLC and CEC.     

整体柱离子色谱的研究进展

该文介绍了离子色谱的分类,整体柱的分类、制备及特点,并以此为依据归纳总结了常规整体柱在离子色谱中的应用和毛细管整体柱在毛细管离子色谱中的应用,其中包括硅胶基质整体柱和聚合物基质整体柱,评述并展望了整体柱离子色谱的发展前景.     

Automation of nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for proteome and peptide profiling analysis by using a monolithic analytical capillary column

An automated nano-LC-MS/MS platform without trap column was established, which only used a 20 cm lauryl methacrylate-ethylene dimethacrylate (LMA-EDMA) monolithic capillary column to allow preconcentration and separation of peptides. The monolithic column had the advantages of good permeability and low backpressure resulting in higher flow rates for capillary columns. Tryptic digests of bovine albumin and yeast protein extract were tested using the monolithic column system. High proteomic coverage using this approach were demonstrated in this study. Furthermore, peptide samples extracted from mouse liver were separated by using the monolithic column system combined with size-exclusion chromatography prefractionation. This monolithic column system might be a promising alternative for the automated system previously using a trap column for routine proteome and peptide profiling analysis.     

Capillary high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry using monolithic columns and carbon fiber electrospray ionization emitters

Monolithic columns having long hydrocarbon chains were prepared by in-situ polymerization in capillary fused silica tubing. The capillary columns were coupled with a newly developed carbon fiber electrospray ionization (ESI) emitter for proteomic analysis using sheathless capillary HPLC-ESI mass spectrometry (MS). The sample loading capacity and chromatographic performance of the styrene-based monolithic column, which was prepared by photo-polymerization of octylstyrene (OS) and divinylbenzene (DVB) were compared with that of the methacrylate-based monolithic column composed of lauryl methacrylate (LMA) and ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA). The sample loading ability of tryptic digested protein in poly-OS (POS)-DVB column was higher than that of poly-LMA (PLMA)-EDMA column, possibly due to the irregular and rugluous surface offering a greater surface area of POS-DVB stationary phase. The POS-DVB column also provided better separation efficiency in the separation of high concentration (10 microg) of tryptic digested albumin bovine serum (BSA). Due to the successful interface of a highly efficient monolithic column and a stable, durable carbon fiber emitter, low femtomole levels of peptides were successfully separated and identified in the presence of large amounts of tryptic digested protein.     

Recent advances in the control of morphology and surface chemistry of porous polymer-based monolithic stationary phases and their application in CEC

This review focuses on developments in the field of polymer-based monolithic columns for CEC published in the literature since the beginning of the year 2005. The possibility of in-situ preparation as well as easy control over their porous properties and surface chemistries clearly make monolithic separation media an attractive alternative to capillary columns packed with particles. Different variables such as polymerization conditions, morphology, and surface chemistry are shown to directly affect performance of monolithic capillary columns in terms of efficiency, analysis time, and retention.