Monolithic columns

About

Introduction: In recent years, the bio-separation systems segment has grown to become a significant factor in the biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals market. Chromatography is one of the more popular techniques for biomolecular separation. With chromatography techniques a sample is dissolved in a mobile phase (gas/liquid/supercritical fluid) and passed through a stationary phase column. The current use of particle-based packed columns in chromatography involves packing the particles (dissolved in a slurry) and then burning the frits on either side of the packed tube to retain the packed bed in a tube. This procedure is more of an art than a science and carries significant person-to-person reproducibility issues. Moreover, these particle-based packed columns are fragile, are time-consuming to fabricate, and tend to result in bubble formation with consequent irreproducible retention times. There exists a clear need for an alternate method for development of monolithic columns. Technology: Georgia State University researchers have invented methods for the fabrication of monolithic columns derived from the design of novel polymerizable surfactant monomers. These can be successfully polymerized “in-situ” with at least one crosslinker, at least one initiator, and at least one porogen. The columns provide polymer-based monolith morphology, excellent permeability, and good mechanical stability. Furthermore, the monolithic columns demonstrated good intra- and inter-day repeatability as well as excellent the intra- and inter-batch reproducibility of fabrication. This method of manufacture represents a very promising approach to obtaining a variety of given polymerization conditions, providing an efficient path for the successful development of a monolithic stationary phase for both capillary electrochromatography (CEC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).