Performance of an octadecylsilylated continuous porous silica column in polypeptide separations

A continuous porous silica rod column prepared by an alkoxy-derived sol-gel method in the presence of a water-soluble organic polymer was tested in the reversed-phase acetonitrile-water linear gradient elution of polypeptides with molecular masses of up to 80000. The silica rod having the through-pore site of 1.1 mu m and silica skeleton size of 0.7 mu m with mesopore size of 26 nm was used. The gradient time and the Linear velocity of the mobile phase were varied and the resolution was examined in terms of peak capacity. The resolution with the silica rod was less affected by the gradient steepness and the mobile phase velocity. The results indicate that the silica rod column could reduce the separation time by a factor of 3 or more compared to the conventional column packed with 5 mu m silica particles. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.