Morphological analysis of physically reconstructed capillary hybrid silica monoliths and correlation with separation efficiency

We report an experimental study on the structural (especially radial) heterogeneity of eleven 100 μm i.d. capillary tetramethoxysilane–methyltrimethoxysilane hybrid silica monoliths with different pore and skeleton sizes, which were imaged by an optimized confocal laser scanning microscopy method. This method allows the optical sectioning of the monoliths, which is a prerequisite for quantitative morphological image analysis. Both radial porosity profiles and chord length distributions were calculated in the macropore domain for each column from at least 100 complete cross-sectional views along the column axis. The statistical approach visualized radial heterogeneities on different length scales in the monolithic structures. Chord length distributions followed a simplified k-gamma function, and a structural parameter obtained from this function is introduced to provide a scalar measure of column heterogeneity. It enables the comparison of monoliths with different pore sizes and helps to establish correlations between the microscopic properties of a column, eddy dispersion, and its separation efficiency.