On-line preconcentration in capillary electrochromatography using a porous monolith together with solvent gradient and sample stacking

Preconcentration effects of solvent gradient and sample stacking are investigated on a photopolymerized sol-gel (PSG) in capillary electrochromatography. The porous PSG monolith has a high mass-transfer rate. This characteristic promotes preconcentration of dilute samples. Plugs of samples more than 2 cm in length prepared in the separation solution (nongradient condition) are injected onto the PSG column. The extent of preconcentration is quite significant showing up to a 100-fold increase in peak heights of the separated analytes. Even larger preconcentrations are achieved under gradient conditions by dissolving the sample in a matrix with a higher concentration of noneluting solvent (water). For eight alkyl phenyl ketones and four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that serve as neutral test analytes, improvements in peak heights obtained under gradient conditions can be more than a 1000-fold. Indeed, injection of a 91.2-cm plug, which is more than 3 times the total length of the capillary, was possible with only a minor loss in resolution. Five peptides serve as charged test analytes. Nongradient conditions in which the sample is hydrodynamically injected onto the PSG column show sizable preconcentration because of sample stacking. The use of a solvent gradient with the same ionic strength, however, does not appear to have practical value because of destacking caused by the changing organic composition that affects the conductivity. As an alternative preconcentration method, we demonstrate that electric field-enhanced sample injection on the PSG yielded up to a 1000-fold improvement in detection sensitivity for the test peptides.