UCT Specialty Chemical cited in Monolithic Chromatography Study

Monolithic materials are versatile adsorbents widely employed in separation science, sample preparation and as supports for flow through applications (e.g. heterogeneous catalysis, ion-exchange, solid-phase extraction, etc). Interest around their preparation and applications has been steadily on the rise. In a recent paper published in Journal of Chromatography A ((2017) 498 46-55) by Patrizia Simonea et al., UCT’s specialty chemical N-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-polyethylenimine was employed in the production of capillary methacrylate-based monoliths. This process was executed by grafting from/to ƴ -ray polymerization on a tentacle-type reactive surface for the liquid chromatographic separations of small molecules and intact proteins.

Capillary methacrylate-based monoliths were prepared for the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation of both small molecules and large biomolecules. An efficient grafting from/to synthetic approach was adopted introducing a network of activated sites in the inner wall surface using UCT’s silanization agent.

Copolymerization of lauryl methacrylate monomer and 1,6-hexanediol dimethacrylate cross-linker in the presence of porogenic solvents was obtained under continuous ƴ -ray exposure with high conversion yield. The morphology and porous structure of the resulting monoliths have been investigated by scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and 1H NMR cryoporosimetry.

By chromatographic investigation, the new capillary columns were found to have high kinetic performance (with efficiency larger than 100,000 theoretical plate/mfor smalclmolecules at optimum mobile phase linear velocity of about 0.5 mm/s) and also excellent mechanical stability and repeatability. The new methacrylate-based monolithic capillary columns have been successfully employed for efficient reversed-phase separation of intact proteins and peptides.

This study shows that when researchers working at the cutting edge of chromatographic studies require the finest of specialty chemicals, they turn to UCT as their first choice. For more information about UCT specialty chemicals please visit https://specialties.unitedchem.com/