Feasibility of the preparation of silica monoliths for gas chromatography: Fast separation of light hydrocarbons

The preparation conditions of silica monoliths for gas chromatography were investigated. Silica-based monolithic capillary columns based on sol-gel process were tested in the course of high-speed gas chromatographic separations of light hydrocarbons mixture (C1-C4). The impact of modifying the amount of porogen and/or catalyst on the monolith properties were studied. At the best precursor/catalyst/porogen ratio evaluated, a column efficiency of about 6500 theoretical plates per meter was reached with a very good resolution (4.3) for very light compounds (C1-C2). The test mixture was baseline separated on a 70 cm column. To our knowledge for the first time a silica-based monolithic capillary column was able to separate light hydrocarbons from methane to n-butane at room temperature with a back pressure in the range of gas chromatography facilities (under 4.1 bar).