Preparation strategy for uniformly sized, polymer-based HPLC packing materials having practically acceptable column efficiency. 1. Copolymerization technique

Uniformly sized, polymer-based packing materials affording excellent chromatographic performance in semimicro HPLC were prepared from mixtures of alkyl metbacrylate and glycerol dimethacrylate by a copolymerization technique using a multistep swelling and polymerization method. A column efficiency of up to 13 000 plates was obtained for a 2-mm-i.d. x 150-mm column with beads prepared from a 1:1 (v-v) mixture of an alkyl methacrylate and glycerol dimethacrylate. The packing materials exhibit a considerable improvement in column efficiency, as demonstrated on the separation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) having a relatively long retention time, which thus far has been a serious problem of polymer-based packing materials. Detailed studies suggested a rather limited optimum pore size, and its distribution was depicted to get the excellent column efficiency on polymer-based packing materials.