Ultrashort Open‐Tubular Capillary Column with Modified Silica‐Gel Thin Layer for Capillary Electrochromatography

Abstract

A new preparation method has been developed that uses silica‐oligomer for the sub‐micron silica‐gel layer for the open‐tubular capillary column (OTC). The silica‐gel layer has a unique sub‐micron cell structure, which was observed by scanning electron microscope, and this structure contributes to increasing its total surface area. Using ultrashort (2 cm long) OTCs modified with docosyl methyl dichloro silane, separation of neutral compounds has been demonstrated. The column shows a good performance, such as theoretical plate number 71,000 plates/m. The column gives a relatively high capacity factor, such as 1.85 for fluorine.

Keywords:

• Silica‐gel thin layer
• Sub‐micron structure
• Open‐tubular
• Short column
• Capillary electrochromatography

Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Grant‐in‐Aid for Scientific Research (B), No. 12440209. We thank PIATEC for their supply of the silica‐oligomer reagent and very helpful discussion, and Prof. Suguru Suzuki and Mr. Tadashi Araki, Ceramic Research Lab, Nagoya Inst. of Tech., for their arrangement and help with electron scanning microscope observations.