Monolithic silica columns for high-efficiency chromatographic separations

Studies on the structural and chromatographic properties of monolithic silica columns were reviewed. Monolithic silica columns prepared from tetraalkoxysilane by a sol-gel method showed high efficiency and high permeability on the basis of the small-sized silica skeletons, large-sized through-pores, and resulting through-pore size/skeleton size ratios much larger than those found in a particle-packed column. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.