Recent advances in preparation and application of hybrid organic-silica monolithic capillary columns

Hybrid organic-silica monolithic columns, regarded as a second generation of silica-based monoliths, have received much interest due to their unique properties over the pure silica-based monoliths. This review mainly focuses on development in the fields of preparation of hybrid monolithic columns in a capillary and their application for CEC and capillary liquid chromatography separation, as well as for sample pretreatment of solid-phase microextraction and immobilized enzyme reactor since July 2010. The preparation approaches are comprehensively summarized with three routes: (i) general solgel process using trialkoxysilanes and tetraalkoxysilanes as coprecursors; (ii) one-pot process of alkoxysilanes and organic monomers concomitantly proceeding solgel chemistry and free radical polymerization; and (iii) other polymerization approaches of organic monomers containing silanes. The modification of hybrid monoliths containing reactive groups to acquire the desired surface functionality is also described.