Convenient enantioseparation by monolithic imprinted capillary clamped in a chip with electrochemical detection

A microchip integrated with a monolithic imprinted capillary has been manufactured for performing the chip-based capillary electrochromatographic enantioseparation. The microporous monolith anchored on the inner wall of the microchannel was prepared by in situ chemical copolymerization, and characterized with scanning electron microscopy, IR spectroscopy, and solid-state UV-vis spectroscopy. The monolithic network with high porosity gave a large surface area, good permeability, low mass-transfer resistance, and thus high separation efficiency. A portable microchip was conveniently constructed by integrating an imprinted capillary with 5-cm length as the separation channel and a carbon fiber microdisk working electrode for amperometric detection. Using L-tyrosine (L-Tyr) as the template molecule, Tyr enantiomers could be baseline separated within 55 s under the optimized preparation and separation conditions. The linear ranges for online amperometric detection of both Tyr enantiomers were from 20 to 2400 μM. The microporous monolithic chip strategy exhibited excellent separation efficiency and promising analytical application in enantioseparation. It opens an avenue for high-throughput screening of chiral compounds.