Separation of acidic and basic compounds in capillary electrochromatography with polymethacrylate-based monolithic columns

Methacrylate-based monolithic columns with electroosmotic flow (EOF) or very weak EOF are prepared by in situ copolymerization in the presence of a porogen in fused-silica capillaries pretreated with a bifunctional reagent. Satisfactory separations of acidic and basic compounds on the column with EOF at either low or high pH are achieved, respectively. With sulfonic groups as dissociation functionalities, sufficient EOF mobility still remains as high as 1.74 x 10(-4) cm2 s(-1) V(-1) at low pH. Under this condition, seven acidic compounds are readily separated within 5.7 min. Moreover, at high pH, the peak shape of basic compounds is satisfactory without addition of any masking amines into running mobile phase since the secondary interaction between the basic compounds and the monolithic stationary phase are minimized at high pH. Reversed-phase mechanism for both acidic and basic compounds is observed under investigated separation conditions. In addition, possibilities of acidic and basic compound separations on a monolithic column with extremely low EOF are discussed.     

Novel preparation of monolithic imprinted columns for electrochromatographic separation by photopolymerization

A monolithic molecularly imprinted polymer with specific recognition ability for 4-hydroxybenzoic acid (4-HBA) was prepared by in situ photopolymerization, using methacrylic acid (MAA) as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a cross-linking agent, toluene and isooctane as porogenic solvents and Irgacure 1800 as an initiator. Baseline separation of isomers of hydroxybenzoic acid was achieved in less than 8 min on this monolithic column using 4-HBA as template, but not on the blank polymer. Furthermore, some neutral compounds could also be baseline-separated on the imprinted polymer column in the mode of pressure-driven capillary electrochromatography.     

Polymerised bicontinuous microemulsions as stationary phases for capillary electrochromatography

Summary Polymerisation of bicontinuous microemulsions yields porous monolithic structures with well defined pore sizes that are potentially suitable for use as stationary phases for capillary electrochromatography (CEC). A variety of pore sizes can be achieved by altering the composition of the microemulsion, which typically consists of butyl methacrylate (BMA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the polymerisable oil phase. The aqueous phase consists of water, a surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulphate, SDS) and a co-surfactant (1-propanol). 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) is also added to provide charges along the polymer backbone to allow electroosmotic flow (EOF) to occur. SEM analysis shows that in-situ polymerisation yields a monolithic structure with a porous topography. Investigations have shown that these monoliths are easy to prepare, robust and suitable for the separation of phthalates. They generate higher linear velocities than are achieved using the silica based HPLC packings normally used for CEC.     

Monitoring the morphology development of polymer‐monolithic stationary phases by thermal analysis

Thermal analysis and SEM were employed to gain insights in the different stages of morphology development and the thermal properties of polymer‐monolithic stationary phases. The studied system was a thermally initiated free‐radical copolymerization reaction at 70°C of styrene and divinylbenzene in the presence of tetrahydrofuran and 1‐decanol. The key events in the early stages of morphology development are initiation, chain growth, branching, and cyclization, leading to microgel particles. Interparticle reactions through pendant vinyl groups lead to the formation of microgel clusters. The rapid increase in molecular weight and cross‐link density of the microgel clusters causes a reaction‐induced phase separation, and the formation of a macroscopic network of interconnected globules was observed (macrogelation) at around 45 min. After 3 h or 65% conversion, a space‐filling macroporous monolithic network was observed. Afterwards, mainly growth of existing globules takes place, reducing the macropore size. The porogen ratio affects the timing of the reaction‐induced phase separation, strongly influencing the morphology of the polymer material. The use of a mixture of divinylbenzene isomers yielded a monolithic material that is less cross‐linked at the surface compared to the central part of the polymer backbone due to copolymerization‐composition drift. The less cross‐linked outer layer starts devitrifying at 100°C.     

Development and in situ synthesis of monolithic stationary phases for electrochromatographic separations

Organic monolithic stationary phases have been synthesized in UV-transparent fused-silica capillaries, which have been used as test format of microfabricated device channels. The columns have been prepared by in situ polymerization of butyl acrylate, lauryl acrylate, 1,3-butanediol diacrylate, and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) in a ternary porogenic solvent. The resulting stationary phases have been tested in capillary electrochromatography and exhibited reversed-phase chromatography behavior toward neutral solutes. Van Deemter plots of phenylureas and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, selected as model analytes, have been determined to study the influence of various polymerization and separation parameters on properties of the monoliths. The amount of AMPS and the nature of monomers in the polymerization solution have been thus adjusted. It has been observed that the ionic strength of the mobile phase may affect significantly the efficiency of the separation. The effect of the percentage of acetonitrile in the mobile phase on efficiency and permeability of the organic monoliths has also been investigated. Efficiencies greater than 300,000 plates/m have been obtained with the test compounds. Stability and reproducibility have been extensively studied.     

Characterization of polymer monolithic stationary phases for capillary HPLC

Monolithic capillary columns have been prepared in fused‐silica capillaries by radical co‐polymerization of ethylene dimethacrylate and butyl methacrylate in the presence of porogen solvent mixtures containing various concentration ratios of 1‐propanol, 1,4‐butanediol, and water with azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator of the polymerization reaction. The through pores in organic polymer monolithic columns can be characterized by “equivalent permeability particle size”, and the mesopores with stagnant mobile phase by “equivalent dispersion particle size”. Increasing the concentration of propanol in the polymerization mixture diminishes the pore volume and size in the monolithic media and improves the column efficiency, at a cost of decreasing permeability. Organic polymer monolithic capillary columns show similar retention behaviour to packed alkyl silica columns for compounds with different polarities characterized by interaction indices, I_x, but have different methylene selectivities. Higher concentrations of propanol in the polymerization mixture increase the lipophilic character of the monolithic stationary phases. Best efficiencies and separation selectivities were found for monolithic columns prepared using 62–64% propanol in the porogen solvent mixture. To allow accurate characterization of the properties of capillary monolithic columns, the experimental data should be corrected for extra‐column contributions.     

Capillary electrochromatographic separation of bovine milk proteins using a G-quartet DNA stationary phase

DNA oligonucleotides that form G-quartet structures were used as stationary phase reagents for separation of bovine milk proteins, including alpha-casein, beta-casein, kappa-casein, alpha-lactalbumin and beta-lactoglobulin. Both artificial protein mixtures and a skim milk sample were analyzed. The separations were performed using open-tubular capillary electrochromatography, in which the oligonucleotides were covalently attached to the inner surface of a fused-silica capillary. Better resolution was achieved using the G-quartet-coated capillaries than was achieved using either a bare capillary or a capillary coated with an oligonucleotide that does not form a G-quartet structure. A 4-plane G-quartet-forming stationary phase was able to resolve three peaks for alpha-casein and to detect thermal denaturation of the proteins in the milk sample. The results suggest that G-quartet stationary phases could be used to separate very similar protein structures, such as those arising from genetic variations or post-translational modifications.     

Monolithic chiral stationary phases for liquid‐phase enantioseparation techniques

This short overview summarizes the development in the field of enantioselective monolithic chromatographic media and their application for pressure‐driven and electrokinetic separations. The major emphasis is put on the currently existing problems and the author's vision for their solution is provided. Due to the author's personal experience silica‐based monoliths are discussed in more detail although the key developments in the field of organic monolithic materials for separation of enantiomers are also discussed.     

Methacrylate monolithic stationary phases for gradient elution separations in microfluidic devices

Methacrylate monolithic stationary phases were produced in fused-silica chips by UV initiation. Poly(butyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) (BMA) and poly(lauryl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) (LMA) monoliths containing 30, 35 and 40% monomers were evaluated for the separation of peptides under gradient conditions. The peak capacity was used as an objective tool for the evaluation of the separation performance. LMA monoliths of the highest density gave the highest peak capacities (≈40) in gradients of 15 min and all LMA monoliths gave higher peak capacities than the BMA monoliths with the same percentage of monomers. Increasing the gradient duration to 30 min did not increase the peak capacity significantly. However, running fast (5 min) gradients provides moderate peak capacities (≈20) in a short time. Due to the system dead volume of 1 μL and the low bed volume of the chip, early eluting peptides migrated over a significant part of the column during the dwell time under isocratic conditions. It was shown that this could explain an increased band broadening on the monolithic stationary phase materials used. The effect is stronger with BMA monoliths, which partly explains the inferior performance of this material with respect to peak capacity. The configuration of the connections on the chip appeared to be critical when fast analyses were performed at pressures above 20 bar.     

Liquid-crystalline stationary phases for gas chromatography

Physico-chemical properties of new liquid-crystalline stationary phases (LCSPs) for gas chromatography are reviewed. The mechanism of chromatographic separation on liquid-crystalline stationary phases is discussed and examples of analyses of complex mixtures of organic compounds using capillary and packed columns are given.     

Octyl-type monolithic columns of 530 microm i.d. for capillary liquid chromatography

A novel monolithic capillary column (530 microm i.d.) was prepared for capillary liquid chromatography (CLC) by in situ copolymerization of octyl methacrylate (MAOE) and ethylene dimethacrylate (EDMA) in the presence of a porogen solvent containing 1-propanol, 1,4-butanediol, and water with azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator. The influences of the contents of the porogen solvent, EDMA and the various concentration ratios of 1-propanol to 1,4-butanediol in the polymerization mixture on the morphology, porosity, globule size, stability and column efficiency were investigated. The morphology and pore size distribution of monolithic capillary columns were characterized by SEM and mercury intrusion porosimetry, respectively. Chromatographic evaluations of the columns were performed under CLC mode. The results showed that good permeability and stability can be obtained under optimal experimental conditions. The separation results of some acid, neutral and basic analytes demonstrated the hydrophobicity and low affinity to basic analytes of the new column. Three metal ions, i.e. Mg(II), Zn(II) and Cd(II) were also separated under ion-pair mode on the new monolithic capillary column and the results were acceptable.     

Packings and stationary phases for biopolymer separations by HPLC

Summary Packings and stationary phases applied to high resolution separations of proteins, enzymes, and nucleic acids must satisfy a series of distinct criteria that are different from those usually required by HPLC of low molecular weight non-biologically active analytes. These requirements have been met through substantial improvements in classical gel media together with novel developments in silica supports, and have led to a family of products with tailor-made and reproducible properties. Supports consisting of cross-linked organic gels, and inorganic materials (mostly silicas) are now available with graduated particle sizes, pore sizes, porosities and surface areas as well as non-porous beads. A whole range of stationary phases, such as reversed phase, hydrophobic interaction, ion exchanger and affinity packings, were designed for application as chemical sensors for biopolymer recognition in adsorptive chromatography. The phase systems are operated in the gradient mode, giving high resolution and high peak capacities. In addition, aqueous liquid-liquid partitioning systems have been developed for the fractionation of proteins and nucleic acids. Size exclusion media complete the set of HPLC variants enabling a discrimination of proteins according to their size and shape in an isocratic elution mode. Basically, protein purification and isolation is a multistage process where-by the HPLC variants are combined in a logistic sequence, utilizing the different selectivities of the phase systems and thus maximising resolution, speed and throughput.     

Electrochromatographic performance of conventional and polar-embedded C16 silica monolithic stationary phases

A novel monolithic silica column that has a polar‐embedded amide‐secondary amine group linking with C16 functionality for RP‐CEC is described. The amide‐secondary aminealkyloxysilane was synthesized by the reaction of 3‐(2‐aminoethylamino) propyltrimethoxysilane with hexadecanoyl chloride. Then, the silylant agent was bonded to the silica monolith matrix to produce hexadecanamide‐secondary amine bonded silica (HDAIS) monolithic column. The electrochromatographic performance of HDAIS monolithic column for the separation of neutral, basic and polar solutes was studied, which was compared to that using the hexadecyl bonded silica monolithic column. The HDAIS monolithic column displayed reduced hydrophobic retention characteristics in the separation of five hydrophobic n‐alkylbenzenes and four polar phenols when compared to the hexadecyl bonded silica monolithic column. A very much reduced silanol activity of HDAIS monolithic column was observed in the separation of test basic mixture including four aromatic amines, atenolol and metoprolol with 10 mM borate buffer (pH 7.5) containing 30% v/v ACN as the mobile phase. The comparison results indicate good performance for both polar and basic mixtures on HDAIS monolithic column in RP‐CEC, and also show promising results for further applications.     

Hybrid organic-inorganic phenyl monolithic column for capillary electrochromatography

A novel hybrid organic-inorganic silica-based monolithic column possessing phenyl ligands for reversed-phase (RP) capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is described. The monolithic stationary phase was prepared by in situ co-condensation of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) with phenyltriethoxysilane (PTES) via a two-step catalytic sol-gel procedure to introduce phenyl groups distributed throughout the silica matrix for chromatographic interaction. The hydrolysis and condensation reactions of precursors were chemically controlled through pH variation by adding hydrochloric acid and dodecylamine, respectively. The structural property of the monolithic column can be easily tailored through adjusting the composition of starting sol solution. The effect of PTES/TEOS ratios on the morphology of the created stationary phases was investigated. A variety of neutral and basic analytes were used to evaluate the column performance. The CEC columns exhibited typical RP chromatographic retention mechanism for neutral compounds and had improved peak shape for basic solutes.     

In situ synthesis of monolithic stationary phases for electrochromatographic separations: study of polymerization conditions

Acrylate-based monolithic capillary columns were prepared from fused-silica capillaries using UV photopolymerization. The effect of the pretreatment of the capillary wall surface before polymerization was investigated and several procedures were compared. The columns were characterization by van Deemter curves and SEM imaging. The results indicated that a pre-silanization of the capillary wall in order to introduce methacrylate groups at the wall surface gave similar efficiencies but more homogeneous structures than when the silanization agent was introduced in the polymerization mixture. The conditioning of the capillary before silanization, especially the conditions of basic rinsing was also an important factor. The effect of the dose of UV light that was applied for the polymerization had also been investigated. The results demonstrated that the irradiation energy is a critical parameter. The minimum energy threshold required to obtain a suitable monolith was 3 J/cm(2) and the maximum was around 12 J/cm(2). A higher energy destroys the monolith. Within the convenient range of energy, the columns had the same efficiency and a good structure as seen by SEM imaging. Using the optimized procedure for the pretreatment and an adequate energy, the column-to-column repeatability was found good (n = 12). The repeatability was obtained for the plate height at two velocity values, the retention factor and the electroosmotic mobility with RSD values below 10.     

Novel preparation of organic polymer-based monolithic column by microwave irradation

Microwave irradiation was firstly attempted for the preparation of organic-based monoliths of poly（styrene-divinylbenzene- methacrylic acid）, which single step in situ polymerization was carried out during 15 min. The colunm permeability, electrophoretic and chromatographac behaviors were comparatively evaluated using pressure-assisted CEC, GEC and low pressure-driven separation modes. The largest theoretical plates for the preparing column could be close to 18,0000 plates/m for thiourea in the mode of p-CEC. It provided a viable alternative to traditional initiation means for the perparation of monolithic capillary columns.     

Nanoparticles as stationary and pseudo-station+ary phases in chromatographic and electrochromatographic separations

To improve selectivity, chemical stability, and separation efficiency of chromatography, many past papers reported on nanoparticles (NPs) being used as stationary phases in chromatography. This article covers applications of NPs, including carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, gold NPs, silica NPs, zirconia NPs, and titanium-oxide NPs, as stationary phases in gas chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and capillary electrochromatography.We discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of nanomaterials as stationary phases compared to other materials, including traditional stationary phases. We also discuss future possibilities for developing nanomaterial-based stationary phases.     

Capillary electrochromatography with monolithic silica columns. IV. Electrochromatographic characterization of polar bonded monolithic stationary phases having surface-bound cyano functionalities

Two polar ligands, namely 3-hydroxypropionitrile and 1H-imidazole-4,5-dicarbonitrile (IDCN) were covalently attached to epoxy-activated silica-based monolithic capillary columns via an epoxide ring-opening reaction to yield CN-OH-Monolith and 2CN-OH-Monolith, respectively. The silica monolith was prepared by a sol-gel process, and the resulting "rod-like" stationary phase was subjected to pore tailoring with an alkaline solution to convert small pore domains to mesopore domains, thus yielding a monolith with bimodal pore structure consisting of flow through pores (i.e., flow channels for mobile-phase flow) and mesopores that provide most of the adsorption capacity of the monolith toward the separated solutes. The two polar monoliths, CN-OH-Monolith and 2CN-OH-Monolith, were evaluated in normal-phase CEC with organic-rich mobile phases less polar than the stationary phase. The 2CN-OH-Monolith bearing more polar functions than the CN-OH-Monolith exhibited more retention and improved selectivity toward model polar solutes.     

Evaluation of smectic biphenylcarboxylate ester liquid-crystalline polysiloxane stationary phases for capillary column gas chromatography

Mesomorphic biphenylcarboxylate esters were coupled via flexible aliphatic hydrocarbon spacers to a polysiloxane backbone. The influence of spacer length, percent mesomorphic substitution, and crosslinking of the stationary phase on liquid-crystalline transition temperatures and on chromatographic performance was investigated. Unique selectivity and good efficiency over a wide temperature range for gum and cross-linked liquid-crystalline phases were demonstrated by the separation of various isomeric polycyclic aromatic compounds.