Design of monoliths through their mechanical properties

• Determination of mechanical properties as a function of monolith pore size and porosity.
• Correlation between compression modulus and permeability.
• Determination of monolith structure having minimal compressibility.

Chromatographic monoliths have several interesting properties making them attractive supports for analytics but also for purification, especially of large biomolecules and bioassemblies. Although many of monolith features were thoroughly investigated, there is no data available to predict how monolith mechanical properties affect its chromatographic performance. In this work, we investigated the effect of porosity, pore size and chemical modification on methacrylate monolith compression modulus. While a linear correlation between pore size and compression modulus was found, the effect of porosity was highly exponential. Through these correlations it was concluded that chemical modification affects monolith porosity without changing the monolith skeleton integrity. Mathematical model to describe the change of monolith permeability as a function of monolith compression modulus was derived and successfully validated for monoliths of different geometries and pore sizes. It enables the prediction of pressure drop increase due to monolith compressibility for any monolith structural characteristics, such as geometry, porosity, pore size or mobile phase properties like viscosity or flow rate, based solely on the data of compression modulus and structural data of non-compressed monolith. Furthermore, it enables simple determination of monolith pore size at which monolith compressibility is the smallest and the most robust performance is expected. Data of monolith compression modulus in combination with developed mathematical model can therefore be used for the prediction of monolith permeability during its implementation but also to accelerate the design of novel chromatographic monoliths with desired hydrodynamic properties for particular application.