The aim of our research is to take advantage of the exposed organic functional groups at the pore surface of a hybrid monolith by thermally grafting poly(octadecyl methacrylate) chains thus creating hydrophobic columns suitable for efficient reversed-phase separations. The organo-silica monoliths chosen for grafting were prepared via thermal polymerization of 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate for 3 hours at 80 �C using azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator and toluene as the porogen. The same initiator and temperature have also been utilized for subsequent surface functionalization using toluene solution of octadecyl methacrylate varying in percentage of the monomer. We observed that the retention factor for benzene grew with the increase in percentage of octadecyl methacrylate up to a 60 v/v%. However, the column efficiency began to decrease at higher percentages, and the back pressure has increased significantly. Finally, the chromatographic performance of the optimized column affording the highest retention factor and efficiency was further evaluated.

Hybrid monolithic columns with thermally grafted octadecyl methacrylate for high performance liquid chromatography of small molecules

245th National Meeting (2013)

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