Monoliths as stationary phases for separation of proteins and polynucleotides and enzymatic conversion

Monoliths are considered as a novel generation of stationary phases. They w ere applied for capillary electrochromatography and liquid chromatography e xploiting every action principle such as ion-exchange, affinity recognition , reversed-phase, and hydrophobic interaction. The fast separation was expl ained by convective transport of the solutes through the bed. The contribut ion of this mode of transport is similarly explained as done for the beds p acked with particles with gigapores. For monolithic beds, the concept of an ultrashort bed was frequently used. This mode of operation allows very sho rt separation time. In many cases a gradient elution is necessary to achiev e separation. Examples of applications for protein and polynucleotide separ ation performed on monoliths are given. Enzymatic conversion was described showing the examples of several immobilzed enzymes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.