High-Performance Size-Exclusion Chromatography of Small Molecules with Columns of Porous Silica Microspheres

Abstract

Columns of 6–11 μm porous silica microspheres with 45–75Å pores synthesized in this laboratory have demonstrated unique utility for the high-performance separations of monomers, oligomers, and low molecular weight polymers (< 20,000 MW) by size-exclusion chromatography. Because of the relatively high separating power of these size-exclusion chromatographic columns and the ability to work with a wide range of organic and aqueous mobile phases, many analytical problems can be solved in about 20 minutes with essentially no method development.