Preparação de novas fases estacionárias monolíticas para uso em eletrocromatografia capilar

Abstract

This thesis describes the preparation of new monolithic stationary phases (MSP) polymerized by photoinitiation through sol-gel approach in polyacrylate-coated fused silica capillary, for application in capillary electrochromatography (CEC). CEC has been concentrated much attention among the major separation techniques in analytical chemistry because it combines the advantages of both high performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis. Much of the CEC development is due to the use of MSP, which are similarly applied to other chromatographic techniques. Unlike polyimide-coating, widely used, the polyacrylate-coating, which is transparent above 370 nm and visible, enables the visualization of the sol solution within the capillary, allowing one to control the injection of sol and other solutions, in addition to observe the in situ formation of the MSP. Furthermore, it is possible to perform the photoinitiated polymerization without removing this polymeric coating that protects the capillary. The main purpose of this work was to comprehend and improve the fabrication process of MSP, for CEC applications. For this, some changes were set in the homemade photo reactor chamber, used for the MSP polymerization, like correction in the work range from 350 – 700 nm to 350 – 400 nm; and installation of security devices for both operator and electric system safeties. For better control of liquid phases injection within tubes with capillary dimensions, the build of a high-pressure device (HPD) that provides a great precision, in addition to the high-pressure, was essential. HPD is simpler and relatively cheaper when compared to commercial models. The preparation of the MSP has been optimized through assistance of a 24-1 fractional factorial design, with the intention to investigate electrochromatographic properties with different amounts of employed reagents and ultraviolet (UV) light incidence time. The later factor did not show significance and was unconsidered, making the design possible to be reduced to a 23 complete factorial design, which allowed analyzing the significant effects accurately. The most influent factor was the porogen (toluene) proportion, and the best condition was obtained using 80.0 % (v/v) of porogenic solution; 3.5 % of photoinitiator bis(2,4,6 trimetylbenzoyl)-phenylphosphine oxide (Irgacure 819); water to metacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) molar ratio equal to 4 and 10 minutes of UV light incidence time. The MSP morphological, spectroscopic characteristics and

porosity were evaluated through scanning electron microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption porosimetry, respectively. The MSP has been tested in CEC through the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene and anthracene) and alkylbenzenes (ethylbenzene, propylbenzene, butylbenzene and hexylbenzene), which are electrically neutral compounds, after dilution in methanol (1 mmol L-1 each), using thiourea as the flow marker. As mobile phase a mixture of ammonium acetate 16.7 mmol L-1 at pH 7.0 (60.0 %) and acetonitrile (40.0 %) was used. The applied voltage was -20 kV, the temperature of analysis was 20 °C, the analyte injection was -25 mbar for 5 s, and UV detection was done at 220 and 250 nm. A fast-CEC mode, which consists to reverse the analysis direction and to introduce the analyte by capillary short-end injection, was performed. This mode was much more fast, repetitive and efficient than the normal one, providing in a little more than 12 minutes over than 51400 plates per meter of column and relative standard deviations ranging from 0.09 to 3.3 % for migration/retention time and from 0.14 to 1.6 % for relative peak area. The separation profiles in CEC corroborate with the porosity and morphology results.