Ground Organic Particles of ca. 3 μm Size as Chromatographic Separation Media in High Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A new chromatographic stationary phase was prepared by making a soft organic monolith based on thermal polymerization of methyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol di-methacrylate with an aid of gas evolution via decomposition of urea, and by crushing the monolith into particles. The original purpose of urea incorporation was formation of monolith particles with affluent mesopores, but the actual effect was reduction of the particle size to a proper range (mostly in the range of 1–5 μm with an average of ca. 3 μm), which was very crucial for improvement of separation efficiency. A series of washing processes (including common washing and reflux washing) were carried out to remove un-reacted materials and free oligomers. The columns were made by packing the organic monolith particles in glass-lined stainless-steel tubing and evaluated for their performance with the mixture of six aromatic compounds (3-phenyl-1-propanol, acetophenone, methyl benzoate, 2-nitroaniline, ethylbenzene, cumene). The overall number of theoretical plates (N) over 6 analytes based on 6 columns was 32,000 plates/column (107,000 plates/m, 9.4 µm plate height).