Homogeneous gels for capillary electrochromatography

Homogeneous gels represent a new type of (electro)chromatographic media possessing unique separation properties unmatched with any other chromatographic beds. It is important to emphasize that they principally differ from continuous beds, polymer rods (better known as monoliths), which are particulate separation media with pores permitting hydrodynamic flow through the columns. Monoliths, thus, are more similar to beds conventionally packed with beads, although the particles building up monolithic columns are usually smaller in size (few submicometers) and covalently linked together. Consequently, homogeneous gels deserve better the term "monoliths" having a non-particulate structure formed by crosslinked free polymer chains (according to a dictionary a monolith is a non-modularized column). The goals of this minireview are to clarify the position of homogeneous gels among the separation media (including polymer solutions), to explain and to exemplify their outstanding (electro)chromatographic properties. This review gives hopefully a complete list of references to homogeneous gels developed for capillary electrochromatography.     

Structure Design of Double-Pore Silica and Its Application to HPLC

Utilizing the concurrence of polymerization-induced phase separation and sol-gel transition in the hydrolytic polycondensation of alkoxysilanes, a well-defined macroporous structure is formed in a monolithic wet gel. By exchanging the fluid phase of the wet gel with an appropriate external solution, the nanometer-range structure of the wet gel can be reorganized into structures with larger median pore size essentially without affecting the macroporous framework. The double-pore structure thus prepared is characterized by open pores distributed in discrete size ranges of micrometers and nanometers. A new type of chromatographic column (silica rod) has been developed using monolithic double-pore silica instead of packed spherical gel particles. Typical silica rod columns had significantly reduced pressure drops and improved analytical efficiencies which do not deteriorate even at higher sample flow rates, both arising from a greater macropore volume than particle packed columns.     

亚微米中孔SBA-15 棒状固定相在毛细管电色谱分离中的应用(英文)

采用中孔SBA-15棒状硅胶颗粒填充毛细管柱用于毛细管电色谱(CEC)分离。这一亚微米材料直径为400 nm并具有沿相同方向伸展的高度有序、均一的圆柱形中孔。棒状的特殊形态使得填充柱的通透性良好,简化了尺寸微小的CEC柱的填充过程。修饰后的棒状SBA-15填充毛细管柱成功应用于反相和离子交换电色谱分离非极性和极性样品,获得了较高柱效(140000理论塔板/m)。流速3.2cm/min时获得最低理论塔板高度为7.1 mm。范迪米特曲线说明了SBA-15孔结构的传质阻力特征。分别以芳香酸、人参、天麻提取物为样品,对亚微米固定相毛细管电色谱柱加以评价。该固定相显示出了较高的分离能力,为纳米材料在色谱固定相中的应用提供了一个新的思路。     

Molded separation media: An inexpensive,efficient, and versatile alternative to packed columns for the fast HPLC separation of peptides,proteins, and synthetic oligomers and polymers

A simple molding process carried out within the confines of a chromatographic column has been used for the preparation of macroporous poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) and poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) rods. The novel monolithic separation media that are obtained are useful for the HPLC separation of biological and synthetic polymers. The presence of large pores with a diameter of about 1 μm makes the molded rod columns easily permeable to eluents. Therefore, the back pressure of these columns is modest even at high flow rates. In contrast to the conventional HPLC columns packed with beads, all of the mobile phase flows through the continuous monolithic medium. As a result of this total convection, the efficiency of the molded media is almost independent of the flow rate. This improves significantly the separation ability of the rod columns and very fast separations of macromolecules such as peptides, proteins, and synthetic polymers have been demonstrated.     

Capillary electrochromatography of proteins with polymer-based strong-cation-exchanger microspheres

Monodisperse poly(glycidyl methacrylate-divinylbenzene) microspheres were functionalized with propyl sulfonic acid moieties to obtain beads negatively charged in a wide pH range. They were packed into fused-silica capillary of 50 micro, I.D. in order to separate proteins by capillary electrochromatography (CEC). Baseline separation of four basic proteins as well as three cytochrome c variants with an average column efficiency of 60,000 theoretical plates was obtained under isocratic elution conditions. The high efficiency is attributed to the uniformity of the column packing and the hydrophilic surface coverage of the polymer beads derived from the functionalization process. The effect of pH and salt concentration on protein separations was investigated and the results showed that the CEC separation mechanism is the combination of chromatographic retention and electrophoretic migration. Moreover, the column packed with the strongly acidic poly(glycidyl methacrylate-divinylbenzene) beads was also suitable for protein separations by micro-HPLC with a salt gradient. The comparison between the two kinds of elution modes shows that the column described here exhibited higher peak efficiency with isocratic elution in CEC than with gradient elution in micro-HPLC.     

Extraction chromatography with macroreticular polymer beads impregnated with monothiodibenzoylmethane solution

Extraction chromatography using macroreticular ethylstyrene-divinylbenzene beads impregnated with monothiodibenzoylmethane (SBB) solution has been investigated. Of the solvents used as the stationary phase, heptan-1-ol showed the highest rate of metal extraction, and loading with 0.5 ml of the solvent per g of resin was found to be the optimum. A column packed with such loaded beads can be used for the separation of nickel(II), iron(III) and cobalt(II).     

Application of gel chromatography to small molecules

Summary Liuid chromatographic separations of hydrocarbons, alcohols, triglycerides and surfactants with molecular weights ranging from 100–1,000 were accomplished, using columns packed with porous polymeric beads. The fractionation capability of the porous gels has been extended to smaller molecules through the development of small porosity gels. The gels separated according to molecular size and are therefore useful both for separation and identification purposes. Since they require no stationary liquid phase, they afford long column life without need of a saturated carrier.

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Zusammenfassung Flüssigkeits-chromatographische Trennungen von Kohlenwasserstoffen, Alkoholen, Triglyceriden und oberflächenaktiven Substanzen mit Molekulargewichten von 100–1000 wurden mit Hilfe von porösen Polymerkörnern erreicht. Das Trennvermögen der porösen Gele wurde durch Entwicklung kleinporiger Typen auf kleinere Moleküle ausgedehnt. Da die Moleküle entsprechend ihrer Größe getrennt werden, kann außer der Trennung auch eine Identifizierung erreicht werden. Da keine flüssige stationäre Phase erforderlich ist, ist eine lange Lebensdauer der Säulen gewährleistet.

     

Open tubular columns and non-porous packings in copolymer HPLC analysis

Summary The separation of poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) is presented in open tubular stainless steel columns and columns packed with non-porous glass beads. Furthermore separation on a short silica packed column proved to be better than on a similar longer column. A definition of the term high performance precipitation liquid chromatography is suggested for gradient elution with sample injection into a starting eluent which is a nonsolvent for the copolymer under investigation. The choice of a suitable solvent-nonsolvent combination is of essential importance.     

尺寸排除色谱扩展因子的分子量依赖性与填料的孔洞表面结构

用聚苯乙烯标样作为探针,对多种SEC柱的分离和扩展效应作同时的校准,扩展因子随探针分子量的增加而增大,增大的幅度与SEC填料的孔洞表面结构有关。大孔径多孔硅球的比表面积较低,孔洞表面比较平滑,溶质分子在孔洞中运动时阻碍粳少,高分子量聚苯乙烯(M?10~6)的扩展因子只比低分子量(M?10~3)的大2—3倍。交联聚苯乙烯型凝胶的比表面积较大,表面比较粗糙,高分子量探针的扩展因子要比低分子量的高出几十倍,显示溶质分子在孔洞中运动所受阻碍较大。后一现象可用有机交联凝胶永久性孔洞的骨架表面具有自由链端得到说明。     

Characterization of some physical and chromatographic properties of monolithic poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) columns

Monolithic capillary columns were prepared by copolymerization of styrene and divinylbenzene inside a 200 microm i.d. fused silica capillary using a mixture of tetrahydrofuran and decanol as porogen. Important chromatographic features of the synthesized columns were characterized and critically compared to the properties of columns packed with micropellicular, octadecylated poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) (PS-DVB-C18) particles. The permeability of a 60 mm long monolithic column was slightly higher than that of an equally dimensioned column packed with PS-DVB-C18 beads and was invariant up to at least 250 bar column inlet pressure, indicating the high-pressure stability of the monolithic columns. Interestingly, monolithic columns showed a 3.6 times better separation efficiency for oligonucleotides than granular columns. To study differences of the molecular diffusion processes between granular and monolithic columns, Van Deemter plots were measured. Due to the favorable pore structure of monolithic columns all kind of diffusional band broadening was reduced two to five times. Using inverse size-exclusion chromatography a total porosity of 70% was determined, which consisted of internodule porosity (20%) and internal porosity (50%). The observed fast mass transfer and the resulting high separation efficiency suggested that the surface of the monolithic stationary phase is rather rough and does not feature real pores accessible to macromolecular analytes such as polypeptides or oligonucleotides. The maximum analytical loading capacity of monolithic columns for oligonucleotides was found to be in the region of 500 fmol, which compared well to the loading capacity of the granular columns. Batch-to-batch reproducibility proved to be better with granular stationary phases compared to monolithic stationary phase, in which each column bed is the result of a unique column preparation process.     

Preparation of highly selective stationary phases for high-performance liquid chromatographic separation of enantiomers by direct copolymerization of monomers with single or twin chiral ligands

Uniformly sized macroporous polymer beads, which can be used as chiral stationary phase (CSP), have been prepared by the staged templated suspension polymerization process using chiral monomer as one of the copolymerization components. This approach enables the preparation of CSPs for which properties such as pore size, pore volume, surface area, chemistry, and chiral ligands can be tuned over a broad range. Several types of well-defined chiral monomers were prepared and allowed to assess synergistic effect of multiple selectors attached to a branched linker as well as the effect of the length and chemistry of the linker. Microscale batch screening was used for simple and rapid evaluation of selectivity. The most promising candidate CSPs were prepared on a larger scale and packed into HPLC columns. Their performance was demonstrated on the separation of racemic N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)-alpha-amino acid alkylamides. The highest separation factors alpha of up to 27 were observed for CSPs prepared from monomers containing the branched spacer. These highly selective CSPs also enabled the separation of larger amounts of the target racemates upon column overload conditions.     

Liposome chromatography: liposomes immobilized in gel beads as a stationary phase for aqueous column chromatography

Liposomes have been used as a stationary phase for column chromatography with an aqueous mobile phase. They were immobilized in the pores of carrier gel beads by two methods: (A) hydrophobic ligands were coupled to the matrix of gel beads, which then were packed into a column and liposomes were applied and became associated with the ligands by hydrophobic interaction; and (B) phospholipids and detergent were dialysed in the presence of gel beads; many of the liposomes that formed in the pores of the beads were sterically immobilized by the gel matrix. Proteoliposomes containing red cell glucose transport protein in the lipid bilayers were immobilized in a column by method A. This column retained D-glucose longer than L-glucose. In contrast to L-glucose, D-glucose was transported into and out of the immobilized liposomes, causing an increased retention. Liposomes with (stearylamine)+ or (phosphatidylserine)- in their lipid bilayers were immobilized by method B and the gel beads were packed into a column. A protein of opposite charge was applied in excess. Under suitable conditions, the protein molecules became close-packed on the liposome surfaces. Ion-exchange chromatographic experiments with proteins showed that these sterically immobilized liposomes were also stable enough to be used as a stationary phase. The loss of lipids was 5-23% in the first run at high protein load and with sodium chloride gradient elution but was lower in subsequent runs. It is proposed that water-soluble molecules can be separated and their interactions with liposome surfaces studied by chromatography on immobilized liposomes in detergent-free aqueous solution. Membrane proteins can be inserted and ligands can be anchored in the lipid bilayers for chromatographic purposes.     

Capillary electrochromatography of peptides on a column packed with tentacular weak cation-exchanger particles

Silica-based, tentacular weak cation-exchanger particles were prepared for use as the stationary phase in the separation of positively charged sample components by capillary electrochromatography (CEC). Silica beads were first silanized with 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate that served as a heterobifunctional linker, which reacted with 2-acrylarmidoglycolic acid in a second step by radical polymerization in aqueous solution. Baseline separation of basic peptides with good column efficiency was obtained on packed capillary columns by isocratic elution CEC with NaCl as the mobile phase modulator. The retention mechanism in the electrochromatographic process was studied by examining the effect of salt concentration on the migration behavior of the peptides. The chromatographic retention factor k'(lc) for charged sample components in the electrochromatographic process was estimated on the assumption that the overall migration rate of a charged migrant can be taken as the sum of the rate of chromatographic elution and the rate of electrophoretic migration. The estimated k(lc) values from experimental results were plotted against the molal salt concentration on a double logarithmic scale. The linear correlation is in good agreement with the prediction by the theory on the basis of traditional ion-exchange chromatography. The comparison of CEC results, obtained with open tubular and packed capillary columns having the same retentive functions as the stationary phase, supports the notion that variation of the phase ratio in the column offers an additional means to modulate the electrochromatographic migration behavior.     

逆流法对凝胶色谱峰加宽效应的研究

在以无孔玻璃珠为填料的色谱柱上研究了流动相中的分离能力和峰加宽效应。得到一定的分离能力。根据Kelley和Billmeyer描述流动相中峰加宽效应的理论,塔板高度和溶液的分子量有关而和分子量分布无关。但实验表明,对于具有相同分子量,但分子量分布不同的样品峰宽不同。苯的逆流峰加宽因子h稍大于直流峰加宽因子h′。产生这个差别的原因可以用在逆转过程中流速场受到干扰来解释。 在以多孔硅胶为填料的柱中对一系列不同分子量、分子量分布和化学结构的样品考察了逆流峰加宽因子,h,和淋出体积,Ve,之间的关系。实验表明h和Ve之间的关系具有普适性,这个结果和Tung的一致。在多孔填料柱上对苯同样得到h>h′。这个结果意味着用逆流法得到的h来校正GPC体系造成的峰加宽稍嫌不够。 只有对于分子量分布很窄的样品,其逆流淋出曲线的形状才非常接近高斯分布。     

Axial development and radial non-uniformity of flow in packed columns

Flow inhomogeneity and axial development in low-pressure chromatographic columns have been studied by magnetic resonance imaging velocimetry. The columns studied included (a) an 11.7-mm I.D. column packed with either 50 microm diameter porous polyacrylamide, or 99 or 780 microm diameter impermeable polystyrene beads, and (b) a 5-mm I.D. column commercially packed with 10 microm polymeric beads. The packing methods included gravity settling, slurry packing, ultrasonication, and dry packing with vibration. The magnetic resonance method used averaged apparent fluid velocity over both column cross-sections and fluid displacements greater than one particle diameter and hence permits assessment of macroscopic flow non-uniformities. The results confirm that now non-uniformities induced by the conical distributor of the 11.7-mm I.D. column or the presence of voids at the column entrance relax on a length scale of the column radius. All of the 11.7-mm I.D. columns examined exhibit near wall channeling within a few particle diameters of the wall. The origins of this behavior are demonstrated by imaging of the radial dependence of the local porosity for a column packed with 780 microm beads. Columns packed with the 99-microm beads exhibit reduced flow in a region extending from ten to three-to-five particle diameters from the wall. This velocity reduction is consistent with a reduced porosity of 0.35 in this region as compared to approximately 0.43 in the bulk of the column. Ultrasonicated and dry-packed columns exhibit enhanced flow in a region located between approximately eight and 20 particle diameters from the wall. This enhancement maybe caused by packing density inhomogeneity and/or particle size segregation caused by vibration during the packing process. No significant non-uniformities on length scales of 20 microm or greater were observed in the commercially packed column packed with 10 microm particles.     

Measurement of recombinant interferon levels by high performance immunoaffinity chromatography in body fluids of cancer patients on interferon therapy.

The technique of high performance immunoaffinity chromatography was used to measure the levels of recombinant interferon in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients enrolled in a phase II recombinant interferon clinical trial. The technique employed a short high pressure chromatography column packed with minute glass beads which had monoclonal antibody, directed against recombinant alpha interferon, immobilized to their surface. This system was used to measure interferon levels in a variety of different human body fluids. A good correlation was found when interferon levels, detected by chromatographic separation, were compared to levels obtained by a conventional radioimmunoassay.     

Capillary electrochromatography without external pressure assistance. Use of packed columns with a monolithic inlet frit

A fused silica capillary column was packed with RP(18) silica stationary phase entrapping the particles between two frits obtained by two different procedures. The inlet frit consisted of a short organic polymer made via a thermopolymerization process while the outlet frit was prepared by sintering the octadecylsilica (ODS) material. The packed column was employed in capillary electrochromatography (CEC) experiments for the separation of three selected test compounds. Retention time and separation efficiency were evaluated. Results were compared with those ones obtained with a packed capillary containing the same stationary phase entrapped between two sinterized frits. The novel packed column exhibited comparable separation efficiency and resolution with the traditional one. However, it allowed experiments without pressure support during the runs with no bubble formation.     

模板法制备大孔硅胶微球及其在高效液相色谱蛋白质分离中的应用

以弱阳离子交换聚合物微球(WCX)为模板、N-三甲氧基硅基丙基-N,N,N-三甲基氯化铵(TMSPTMA)为结构导向剂、四乙氧基硅烷(TEOS)为硅胶前驱体,在三乙醇胺弱碱催化作用下,水解缩合形成有机聚合物与二氧化硅复合微球,将此复合微球煅烧后得到大孔二氧化硅微球。探索了不同反应条件对二氧化硅微球的形貌、表面结构和分散性的影响;当TMSPTMA、TEOS与三乙醇胺的体积比为1∶2∶2时可以得到孔径在50~150 nm之间、粒径在2μm左右的硅胶微球。对所制备的大孔硅胶微球表面进行C18(十八烷基二甲基氯硅烷)键合修饰,然后将键合的填料装填到50 mm×4.6 mm的色谱柱中,考察了其对常见的几种标准蛋白质和市售大豆分离蛋白质的分离效果,结果显示这种填料在高效液相色谱蛋白质分离中具有一定的潜力。     

Siliceous mesocellular foam for high-performance liquid chromatography: Effect of morphology and pore structure

Spherical siliceous mesocellular foam (MCF) particles with an average particle size of 4.8 μm have been successfully prepared. These spherical particles were tailored in pore sizes and surface areas. They were functionalized with C₈ or C₁₈ groups, and applied towards reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) column separations. Their high surface areas gave rise to very good retention characteristics, as illustrated in the separation of a series of alkylbenzene solutes with increasing chain length. The highly interconnected porous structure and ultralarge pore size of MCF allowed the columns to be used at high flow rates without much loss in column efficiency. The column efficiency and peak symmetry were further improved by eliminating the micropores of the stationary phase. The reversed phase column packed with C₁₈-modified spherical MCF particles provided for excellent separation of different deoxynucleosides, illustrating the broad applicability of these materials due to their controlled pore size.     

黄酮醇异构体的超临界流体色谱法分离

用超临界流体色谱法进行了黄酮醇异构体的分离研究。考察了温度、压力、流动相组成、柱条件等对分离的影响。在实验的温度范围４０～６０℃和压力范围１５～３０ＭＰａ内,这组化合物都能得到很好的分离;流动相组成是影响色谱分离的最显著的因素,磷酸的加入大大改变了各物质的保留行为;考察了三种硅胶基质键合相对分离的影响,发现苯基柱用于这组异构体的分离最为合适。