Fritless Column for Capillary HPLC Prepared by Immobilizing Octadecylsilane Particles in an Organic Polymer Matrix

Abstract

A new approach of immobilized particle separation media for capillary HPLC and CEC has been developed. A mixture of porogenic solvents and methacrylate based monomers is pumped through a single tapered packing column, following a polymerization step by microwave irradiation. Furthermore, the chromatographic behaviors of the prepared column were thoroughly evaluated by changing the flow rate and the percentage of mobile phase by the developed capillary HPLC system. With the optimal experimental conditions, baseline separation of the model analytes including thiourea, benzene, methylbenzene, ethylbenzene, was obtained with a column efficiency of theoretical plate height less than 100 µm for the last eluted analyte of ethylbenzene in capillary HPLC and CEC. The developed capillary column was found to be stable and could easily be operated continuously up to a pressure of 30 MPa without column damage and the capillary can be cut to any desired length.

Keywords:

• Capillary electrochromatography
• Capillary liquid chromatography
• Immobilization
• Microwave irradiation
• Octadecylsilane
• Slurry packing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The financial supports by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, Joint Research Project under NSFC (China) and the KOSEF (South Korea) Cooperative Program (No. 20611140646) and Program for New Century Talents in University of Henan Province (2006HNCET-01) are gratefully acknowledged.

Manuscript 6452