Preparation of phenylboronate affinity rigid monolith with macromolecular porogen

Boronate-affinity monolithic column was first prepared via polystyrene (PS) as porogen in this work. The monolithic polymer was synthetized using 4-vinylphenylboronic acid (4-VPBA) as functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as crosslinker monomer, and a mixture of PS solution in tetrahydrofuran, the linear macromolecular porogen, and toluene as porogen. Isoquercitrin (ISO) and hyperoside (HYP), isomer diol flavonoid glycosides, can be baseline separated on the poly(VPBA-co-EDMA) monolith. The effect of polymerization variables on the selectivity factor, e.g., the ratio of monomer to crosslinker (M/C), the amount of PS and the molecular weight of macromolecular porogen was investigated. The surface properties of the monolithic polymer were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and nitrogen adsorption. The best polymerization condition was the M/C ratio of 7:3, and the PS concentration of 40 mg/ml. The poly(VPBA-co-EDMA) polymer was also applied to extract cis-diol flavonoid glycosides from the crude extraction of cotton flower. After treated by poly(VPBA-co-EDMA) for solid phase extraction, high purity ISO and HYP (>99.96%) can be obtained with recovery of 83.7% and 78.6%, respectively.