Investigating the structure of a monolithic capillary column by means of hydrodynamic and size-exclusion chromatography

The porosity of a monolithic capillary column having a structure optimized for gas chromatographic analysis was investigated by means of hydrodynamic and size-exclusion chromatography. It was found that the total porosity of the column exceeded 90%, and the column had a bimodal pore structure with a micropore diameter of about 1.5 nm and a macropore diameter of about 1.2 μm. The column separated with good selectivity high molecular mass polystyrene standards with molecular masses higher than 100 kDa and low molecular mass solutes of up to 500 Da. The structure of monolithic column has to be optimized for application in hydrodynamic chromatography with an aim to provide selectivity on separation of polymers with molecular mass from 1 to 100 kDa.