Abstract
This review summarizes the development of methacrylate-based polymer monoliths for separation science applications. An introduction to monoliths is presented, followed by the preparation methods and characteristics specific to methacrylate monoliths. Both traditional chemical based syntheses and emerging additive manufacturing methods are presented along with an analysis of the different types of functional groups, which have been utilized with methacrylate monoliths. The role of methacrylate based porous materials in separation science in industrially important chemical and biological separations are discussed, with particular attention given to the most recent developments and challenges associated with these materials. While these monoliths have been shown to be useful for a wide variety of applications, there is still scope for exerting better control over the porous architectures and chemistries obtained from the different fabrication routes. Conclusions regarding this previous work are drawn and an outlook towards future challenges and potential developments in this vibrant research area are presented. Discussed in particular are the potential of additive manufacturing for the preparation of monolithic structures with pre-defined multi-scale porous morphologies and for the optimization of surface reactive chemistries.
Highlights
Monolithic materials are increasingly utilized in the separation of both chemical and biological molecules
After this introduction to monolith materials, this paper presents a detailed overview of methacrylate-based polymer monoliths and their applications
The ease of functionalization and preparation of methacrylate monoliths has been a key factor in their appeal to researchers, it must be stressed that this work is still very much in the early stages and significant scope remains for improvement of existing chemical modifications in terms of control and in the discovery of new chemical transformations and polymerization control mechanisms
Summary
Monolithic materials are increasingly utilized in the separation of both chemical and biological molecules. Materials 2016, 9, 446 silicate based materials, inorganic monoliths, and organic polymers, such as vinyl esters, methacrylates, polystyrenes, ethylene glycols, and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19] This list does not cover the wide range of functional groups which has been investigated, in order to tailor the monolith stationary phase to a particular analyte or separation mechanism [8,9,10,13,15,20,21,22,23,24]. Separations, amplification, and detection capabilities for these analytes with methacrylate monolithic columns are presented and discussed in this review
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