Pressure-assisted CEC versus CEC using methacrylate-based monolithic columns: influence of the polymerization-mixture composition.

Pressure-assisted CEC (pCEC) can either be performed on a CE instrument by adding pressure at the column inlet, or by applying voltage on a capillary liquid chromatography system. This study investigates the pressure's added value in pCEC using an LC instrument as well as the influence of the polymerization-mixture composition on monolithic columns in such experimental circumstances. Two factors of the polymerization mixture, which is used to prepare the monolithic capillary columns, were varied according to an experimental design approach: the pore-forming solvent/total monomer ratio and the pore-forming solvents composition. Initially, the effect of the resulting stationary phase on the elution behavior of mainly pharmaceutical compounds was studied. Four responses were used to evaluate the effects on the chromatography: retention time, retention factor, peak asymmetry and number of theoretical plates. After processing the results, the stationary phase composition with the best chromatographic behavior was determined and tested. The advantageous properties of this stationary phase compared with the design center-point column were demonstrated. Secondly, the results of these pCEC experiments were compared with those generated in an identical experimental setup previously performed using CEC. Chromatographic conditions were chosen so that the center-point column showed similar retention in CEC and pCEC. The expected advantage (faster analysis) and drawback (decreased efficiency) of pCEC in the analysis of pharmaceuticals was evaluated. Analysis time and efficiency were both found to depend greatly on the porosity of the column. The conclusion of this comparison is that pCEC did not have a significant added value to CEC. However, this was mainly due to the instrument's limitation of the pressure-driven flow over the column. A clear benefit of the pCEC setup was apparatus-related, i.e. the presence of a loop injection system on the pCEC instrument, which avoids the injection problems that were occasionally observed in CEC.