Porous polymer monoliths: an alternative to classical beads

Separation of Inorganic Anions Using an 18-Crown-6-ether-modified Organic Polymer Monolithic Stationary Phase in Capillary Ion Chromatography

In this study, a monolithic organic polymer stationary phase was modified using 18-crown-6-ether for use in capillary ion chromatography. Its use in the separation of inorganic anions was investigated. The monolithic stationary phase was obtained by chemically bonding 2-aminomethyl-18-crown-6-ether to a polymer skeleton comprising glycidyl methacrylate and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate. The optimum level of the loading of 2-aminomethyl-18-crown-6-ether onto the stationary phase was investigated. The resulting stationary phase was used to investigate the influence of the eluent cation, the concentration of the eluent, and the pH of the eluent on the separation of inorganic anions.

Affinity Membranes and Monoliths for Protein Purification

Affinity capture represents an important step in downstream processing of proteins and it is conventionally performed through a chromatographic process. The performance of this step highly depends on the type of matrix employed. In particular, resin beads and convective materials, such as membranes and monoliths, are the commonly available supports. The present work deals with non-competitive binding of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on different chromatographic media functionalized with Cibacron Blue F3GA (CB). The aim is to set up the development of the purification process starting from the lab-scale characterization of a commercially available CB resin, regenerated cellulose membranes and polymeric monoliths, functionalized with CB to identify the best option. The performance of the three different chromatographic media is evaluated in terms of BSA binding capacity and productivity. The experimental investigation shows promising results for regenerated cellulose membranes and monoliths, whose performance are comparable with those of the packed column tested. It was demonstrated that the capacity of convective stationary phases does not depend on flow rate, in the range investigated, and that the productivity that can be achieved with membranes is 10 to 20 times higher depending on the initial BSA concentration value, and with monoliths it is approximately twice that of beads, at the same superficial velocity.

Porous Polystyrene Monoliths Prepared from in Situ Simultaneous Interpenetrating Polymer Networks: Modulation of Morphology by Polymerization Kinetics

Semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPNs) were prepared by in situ simultaneous orthogonal polymerizations, where the linear poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) was synthesized by ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone and the poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) (PS) network was formed by free-radical polymerization of styrene/divinylbenzene. Semi-IPNs were used as the precursors for the preparation of porous PS monoliths. To this end, the PCL domains were selectively removed by hydrolysis under basic conditions. By changing the amount of organocatalyst used for the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone, the relative polymerization kinetics of both monomers was varied, which has a pronounced effect on the morphology of thus-obtained PS frameworks.

Column Characterization and Selection Systems in Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) is the most popular chromatographic mode, accounting for more than 90% of all separations. HPLC itself owes its immense popularity to it being relatively simple and inexpensive, with the equipment being reliable and easy to operate. Due to extensive automation, it can be run virtually unattended with multiple samples at various separation conditions, even by relatively low-skilled personnel. Currently, there are >600 RP-HPLC columns available to end users for purchase, some of which exhibit very large differences in selectivity and production quality. Often, two similar RP-HPLC columns are not equally suitable for the requisite separation, and to date, there is no universal RP-HPLC column covering a variety of analytes. This forces analytical laboratories to keep a multitude of diverse columns. Therefore, column selection is a crucial segment of RP-HPLC method development, especially since sample complexity is constantly increasing. Rationally choosing an appropriate column is complicated. In addition to the differences in the primary intermolecular interactions with analytes of the dispersive (London) type, individual columns can also exhibit a unique character owing to specific polar, hydrogen bond, and electron pair donor-acceptor interactions. They can also vary depending on the type of packing, amount and type of residual silanols, "end-capping", bonding density of ligands, and pore size, among others. Consequently, the chromatographic performance of RP-HPLC systems is often considerably altered depending on the selected column. Although a wide spectrum of knowledge is available on this important subject, there is still a lack of a comprehensive review for an objective comparison and/or selection of chromatographic columns. We aim for this review to be a comprehensive, authoritative, critical, and easily readable monograph of the most relevant publications regarding column selection and characterization in RP-HPLC covering the past four decades. Future perspectives, which involve the integration of state-of-the-art molecular simulations (molecular dynamics or Monte Carlo) with minimal experiments, aimed at nearly "experiment-free" column selection methodology, are proposed.

Low-Temperature Continuous-Flow Dehydration of Xylose Over Water-Tolerant Niobia-Titania Heterogeneous Catalysts

The sustainable conversion of vegetable biomass-derived feeds to useful chemicals requires innovative routes meeting environmental and economical criteria. The approach herein pursued is the synthesis of water-tolerant, unconventional solid acid monolithic catalysts based on a mixed niobia-titania skeleton building up a hierarchical open-cell network of meso- and macropores, and tailored for use under continuous-flow conditions. The materials were characterized by spectroscopic, microscopy, and diffraction techniques, showing a reproducible isotropic structure and an increasing Lewis/Brønsted acid sites ratio with increasing Nb content. The catalytic dehydration reaction of xylose to furfural was investigated as a representative application. The efficiency of the catalyst was found to be dramatically affected by the niobia content in the titania lattice. The presence of as low as 2 wt % niobium resulted in the highest furfural yield at 140 °C under continuous-flow conditions, by using H₂ O/γ-valerolactone as a safe monophasic solvent system. The interception of a transient 2,5-anhydroxylose species suggested the dehydration process occurs via a cyclic intermediates mechanism. The catalytic activity and the formation of the anhydro intermediate were related to the Lewis acid sites (LAS)/Brønsted acid sites (BAS) ratio and indicated a significant contribution of xylose-xylulose isomerization. No significant catalyst deactivation was observed over 4 days usage.

Versatile preparation of surface-skinless particles of epoxy resin-based monoliths using a well-defined diblock copolymer surfactant

This is the first report on a versatile and facile preparation method for well-defined and surface-skinless epoxy resin-based monolithic particles by polymerization-induced phase separation in an oil-in-oil emulsion system in the presence of a designed block copolymer.

Analysis of protein isoforms: can we do it better?

Protein isoforms/splice variants can play important roles in various biological processes and can potentially be used as biomarkers or therapeutic targets/mediators. Thus, there is a need for efficient and, importantly, accurate methods to distinguish and quantify specific protein isoforms. Since protein isoforms can share a high percentage of amino acid sequence homology and dramatically differ in their cellular concentration, the task for accuracy and efficiency in methodology and instrumentation is challenging. The analysis of intact proteins has been perceived to provide a more accurate and complete result for isoform identification/quantification in comparison to analysis of the corresponding peptides that arise from protein enzymatic digestion. Recently, novel approaches have been explored and developed that can possess the accuracy and reliability important for protein isoform differentiation and isoform-specific peptide targeting. In this review, we discuss the recent development in methodology and instrumentation for enhanced detection of protein isoforms as well as the examples of their biological importance.

Development of an epoxy-based monolith used for the affinity capturing of Escherichia coli bacteria

An epoxy-based monolith has been developed for use as hydrophilic support in bioseparation. This monolith is produced by self-polymerization of polyglycerol-3-glycidyl ether in organic solvents as porogens at room temperature within 1 h. One receives a highly cross-linked structure that provides useful mechanical properties. The porosity and pore diameter can be controlled by varying the composition of the porogen. In this work, an epoxy-based monolith with a high porosity (79%) and large pore size (22 microm) is prepared and used in affinity capturing of bacterial cells. These features allow the passage of bacterial cells through the column. As affinity ligand polymyxin B is used, which allows the binding of gram-negative bacteria. The efficiency of the monolithic affinity column is studied with Escherichia coli spiked in water. Bacterial cells are concentrated on the column at pH 4 and eluted with a recovery of 97+/-3% in 200 microL by changing the pH value without impairing viability of bacteria. The dynamic capacity for the monolithic column is nearly independent of the flow rate (4x10(9)cells/column). Thereby, it is possible to separate and enrich gram-negative bacterial cells, such as E. coli, with high flow rates (10 mL/min) and low back pressure (<1 bar) in a volume as low as 200 microL compatible for real-time polymerase chain reaction, microarray formats, and biosensors.

Fabricating complex three-dimensional nanostructures with high-resolution conformable phase masks

High-resolution, conformable phase masks provide a means to fabricate, in an experimentally simple manner, classes of 3D nanostructures that are technologically important but difficult to generate in other ways. In this approach, light passing through a phase mask that has features of relief comparable in dimension to the wavelength generates a 3D distribution of intensity that exposes a photopolymer film throughout its thickness. Developing this polymer yields a structure in the geometry of the intensity distribution, with feature sizes as small as 50 nm. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis reveals the fundamental aspects of the optics associated with this method; a broad-range 3D nanostructures patterned with it demonstrates its technical capabilities. A nanoporous filter element built inside a microfluidic channel represents one example of the many types of functional devices that can be constructed.

Short columns with molecularly imprinted monolithic stationary phases for rapid separation of diastereomers and enantiomers

Three molecularly imprinted monolithic columns with different length but almost identical column volume had been prepared. It was observed that the separation factors of diastereomers and enantiomers were almost unaffected by column length. However, the short column with dimension of 38 mm x 8 mm i.d. showed much lower resistance to flow rate so that it could be operated at much higher flow rates. By combining stepwise gradient elution with elevated flow rate, the diastereomers of cinchonine and cinchonidine and the enantiomers of Cbz-DL-Trp and Fmoc-DL-Trp were successfully separated within 3 min on the short column with dimension of 38 mm x 8 mm i.d. Based on the above results, a cinchonine imprinted monolithic disk with dimension of 10mm x 16 mm i.d. was further developed. The SEM image and the pore size distribution profile showed that large flow-through pores are present on the prepared monolith, which allowed mobile phase to flow through the disk with very low resistance. Chromatographic performances on the monolithic disk were almost unchanged compared with the long columns. A rapid separation of cinchonine and cinchonidine was achieved in 2.5 min at the flow rate of 9.0 ml/min. Furthermore, it was observed that there was almost no effect of the flow rate on the dynamic binding capacity at high flow rates. In addition, the effect of the loading concentration of analytes on the dynamic binding capacity, namely adsorption isotherm, was also investigated. A non-linear adsorption isotherm of cinchonine was observed on the molecularly imprinted monolith with cinchonine as template, which might be a main reason to result in the peak tailing of template molecule.