Microfabricated monolith columns for liquid chromatography - Sculpting supports for liquid chromatography

Monolith columns are generally fabricated by polymerization of monomers wit hin a column. This paper reviews an alternative strategy in which the bed i s microfabricated in an inorganic material by ablation. Channels of 1.5 mu m width and 10 mu m depth were sculpted in quartz by deep reaction ion etch ing. Using this approach chromatographic beds were constructed in which cub ic support structures were created and arranged in rows to mimic particles in a conventional column. Beds ranging from hundreds of thousands to millio ns of "particles" with volumes of 15 nL to 15 mu L were produced. Columns t hat had been derivatized with an octadecyl silane stationary phase were use d to separate both low molecular weight analytes and peptides in the CEC mo de, Plate height in the CEC mode was 1.2 mu m at maximum efficiency.