Monolithic columns based on a poly(styrene-divinylbenzene-methacrylic acid) copolymer for capillary liquid chromatography of small organic molecules.

A very simple and readily performed method is described for the preparation of poly(styrene-divinylbenzene-methacrylic acid) monolithic columns for capillary liquid chromatography. The effect of the methacrylic acid content on the morphological and chromatographic properties has been investigated. Methacrylic acid is shown to be essential for isocratic separations of small organic analytes by capillary liquid chromatography. Column efficiencies of about 28,000 theoretical plates/m have been obtained for all the test compounds. The batch-to-batch and run-to-run repeatability of the retention times is better than 1.5%.