Ground Organic Monolith Particles as Chromatographic Separation Media

Abstract

A monolith is one body 3-dimensional organic or inorganic polymer network where macroporous pores (through flow channels, over 1 µm) and mesoporous pores (less than 1 µm) are included. A properly made monolith in a metal column or a silica capillary can be commonly used as separation media in liquid chromatography or capillary electrochromatography (CEC). The monolith column can also be used in solid phase extraction (SPE). There have been many review articles on inorganic and organic monoliths as separation media, and the number of such review articles has proven to increase recently 1-18 as interest in monoliths has kept growing. On the other hand, studies on ground monolith particles have been rare. C18 modified 19,20 and polystyrene modified 21-24 ground silica monolith particles have been employed as new stationary phases of improved separation efficiency. Nevertheless, there has been no report on organic ground monolith particles as chromatographic or SPE media so far. In this study, special organic monolith particles have been prepared by a simple procedure and their possibility as separation media has been explored. This study is the very first report of using organic monolith particles as separation media. The separation performance (N~4,000) of organic monolith particles of this study is inferior to that of commercial monolith columns or C18 packed columns (N~10,000-20,000) at present. The simple and inexpensive preparation procedure of this study may be the primary merit of organic ground monolith particles. In addition, their separation performance is subject to improvements in the future.