Preparation and characterization of octadecyl acrylate monoliths for capillary electrochromatography by photochemical, thermal, and chemical initiation†

A thermodynamic study of capillary electrochromatographic retention of aromatic hydrocarbons on a lauryl acrylate porous polymer monolithic column with measured phase ratio

The phase ratio of a chromatographic system is an important measurement that has long been estimated or calculated, but rarely directly measured. This study utilized a nanoflow liquid chromatography instrument to more accurately measure the phase ratio for a lauryl acrylate porous polymer monolith. Direct measurement of the phase ratio, and its dependence on temperature, allows for a better understanding of the thermodynamics of retention of small analytes. This study investigates the retention of an alkyl benzene series, toluene to octylbenzene, via capillary electrochromatography. The phase ratio was determined to be 0.202 at 303 K and 0.213 at 333 K. Using the directly measured phase ratio, entropic contributions to retention can also be obtained. Therefore, the Gibbs free energy calculations from these measurements and methods can give insight to modes of retention. The free energy of retention for toluene is -3.97 kJ/mol at 303 K and -3.78 kJ/mol at 333 K. The trends for enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy of transfer show that retention is enthalpically driven in this capillary electrochromatography (CEC) porous polymer monolith system.

Influence of photo-initiators in the preparation of methacrylate monoliths into poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene) tubing for microbore HPLC

In this study, poly(butyl methacrylate-co-ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate) polymeric monoliths were in situ developed within 0.75 mm i.d. poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene) (ETFE) tubing by UV polymerization via three different free-radical initiators (α,α'-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN), 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone (DMPA) and 2-methyl-4'-(methylthio)-2-morpholinopropiophenone (MTMPP). The influence of the nature of each photo-initiator and irradiation time on the morphological features of the polymer was investigated by scanning electron microscopy, and the chromatographic properties of the resulting microbore columns were evaluated using alkyl benzenes as test substances. The beds photo-initiated with MTMPP gave the best performance (minimum plate heights of 38 μm for alkyl benzenes) and exhibited a satisfactory reproducibility in the chromatographic parameters (RSD < 11%). These monolithic columns were also successfully applied to the separation of phenylurea herbicides, proteins and a tryptic digest of β-casein.

Monoliths: special issue in a new package

Regular special issues concerning monoliths have always been a stronghold of the Journal of Separation Science. Typically, we issued a call for papers, collected and processed the submitted manuscripts, and all of them were then printed in a single issue of the journal. This approach worked to a certain limit quite acceptably but there was always a longer waiting time between the early submissions and publication. This is why we decided to do it this year differently. I claimed in my 2013 New Years Editorial: "We are living in the electronic era! Why not to make an advantage of that?" And we do. As a result, all manuscript submitted for publication in the special issue Monoliths have already been published in regular issues as soon as they were accepted. The first page of these papers includes a footnote: "This paper is included in the virtual special issue Monoliths available at the Journal of Separation Science website." All papers published with this footnote were collected in a virtual special issue accessible through the internet. This concept ruled out possible delays in publication of contributions submitted early. Since we did not have any real "special issue", there was no need for any hard deadline for submission. We just collected manuscripts submitted for the special issue Monoliths published from January to July 2013 and included them in the virtual special issue. This new approach worked very well and we published 22 excellent papers that are included in the issue available now at this website: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1615-9314/homepage/virtual_special_issue__monoliths.htm.