Synthesis and Functionalization of Nanostructured Porous Polymer Materials for Analytical Applications

Friday, March 12, 2021: 9:15 AM - 9:50 AM

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Description

The majority of materials for chromatographic applications are silica-based, due largely to the excellent mechanical properties and well established protocols for synthesis and chemical modification. There remains a number of chromatographic modes and applications where polymer-based materials offer superior performance. This presentation will focus primarily on polymer-based monolithic materials for which the relatively simple preparation, robustness, high permeability to flow, mass transfer via convection and flexible chemistry has since seen these materials used in a range of applications such as chromatography and as supports for synthesis, catalysis and immobilized enzymes. A key factor in improving the performance of polymer monoliths, in particular for analytical applications is the degree of bed heterogeneity. This presentation will introduce approaches to form ordered porous polymers suitable for analytical applications including chromatography, sample preparation and microsampling. Polymerization at sub-zero temperatures (cryopolymerisation) with and without unidirectional freezing is used to produce highly ordered monolithic structures with porous properties easily tuned according to the freezing/polymerization conditions. The incorporation of nanoparticles (neutral or charged polymer, inorganic, metal) during the polymerization process also leads to significantly improved structural homogeneity, reflected in chromatographic separation performance. Examples of new interconnected polymerized high internal phase emulsions (polyHIPEs) and medium internal phase emulsions (polyMIPEs) will also be presented. Emulsion stabilizers including nanoparticles, novel amphiphilic block co-polymers and surfactants will be demonstrated, controlling both morphology and surface chemistry. The use of controlled radical polymerization will also be demonstrated as a technique to produce new polymer materials for high performance separation of proteins and peptides.