Simple method for the preparation of highly efficient polymer‐coated capillary electrophoresis columns

Abstract

AbstractA simple method for the preparation of polymer‐coated fused silica capillary columns for electrophoresis is presented. It is shown that the static coating technique used in GC and SFC can be conveniently utilized for the preparation of highly efficient capillary electrophoresis columns. In this method, the coating solution contains appropriate proportions of three ingredients: a polymer, a surface derivatization reagent, and a crosslinking reagent dissolved in a suitable low‐boiling solvent. After coating, the column is subjected to heat treatment to immobilize the polymer film. Simplicity, rapidity, high column efficiency, batch‐to‐batch and run‐to‐run reproducibility, and long column life‐time are advantageous features of the new method. Column efficiencies of as high as 1.2 million theoretical plates were achieved for cytochrome c on a 96 cm long Ucon 75 H‐90,000 coated column. Efficient electrophoretic separation of five cytochrome c proteins was achieved on a Superox 4 coated column. The possibility of CE separation of histones on the new columns was also explored.