Influence of the polymerization-mixture composition for monolithic methacrylate-based columns on the electrochromatographic performance of drug molecules

Methacrylate-based monolithic stationary phases were evaluated for the analysis of drug molecules using capillary electrochromatography (CEC) as separation technique. The effect of the polymerization-mixture composition on the retention behavior of a small test set of mainly drug molecules was studied. Two factors were varied in a central-composite design-based approach: the ratio between the pore-forming solvents and the monomers on one hand, and the ratio within the pore-forming solvents on the other hand, resulting in nine different stationary phases. The central point of the design was chosen at 70% (m/m) pore-forming solvents (PFS) of which 30% (m/m) is 1,4-butanediol, i.e. 21% of the total polymerization mixture. Experiments were conducted using both a basic (pH 11.5) and an acidic (pH 3) mobile phase. Retention times, retention factors, peak asymmetry and number of theoretical plates are the responses used to evaluate the performance of the resulting monoliths. The best compromise between the different responses was found around 67% PFS and 18% 1,4-butanediol (relative to the total mass), i.e. rather close to the center point. At these conditions, retention times were generally below 15min and retention factors below 5. Asymmetry values between close to 1 were found, and theoretical plate numbers up to 10,900, which were improvements compared to the central point of the design.