Silica-supported polymeric monolithic column with a mixed mode of hydrophilic and strong cation-exchange interactions for microcolumn liquid chromatography

A novel sulfonic acid group containing hydrophilic strong cation-exchange monolith was prepared by in situ coating 5 μm bare silica particles with the copolymers of glycidyl methacrylate and pentaerythritol triacrylate and further sulfonating the prepared polymer matrix with Na₂ SO₃ inside a 150 μm id capillary. The preparation conditions were investigated, and the method was described in detail. The prepared column was characterized by comparing with its counterparts reported previously in terms of matrix morphology, preparation reproducibility, permeability, swelling-shrinking behavior, mechanical stability, hydrophilicity, binding capacity, and column efficiency. The swelling-shrinking behavior of the present column in solvents of different polarities was negligible, the hydrophobicity could be suppressed at the acetonitrile concentrations higher than 40% v/v, and the binding capacities were 256 μequiv/mL and 20.1 mg/mL for Cu²⁺ and lysozyme, respectively. The minimum theoretical plate heights were 8, 10, and 13 μm, and the values of the C term in van Deemter equation were 9, 12, and 35 ms for the test analytes of Na⁺ , thiourea, and cytidine 5'-monophosphate, respectively. This column exhibited an excellent performance in the separations of monovalent inorganic cations, uncharged polar, and charged polar compounds.