Controlled porosity monolithic material as permselective ion exchange membranes

Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are used in a variety of analytical devices, including suppressors, eluent generators and other components used in ion chromatography. Such membranes are flexible and undergo substantial dimensional changes on hydration. Presently the push to miniaturization continues; a resurgent interest in open tubular ion chromatography requires microscale adaptation of these components. Incorporating IEMs in microscale devices is difficult. Although both macroporous and microporous ion exchange materials have been made for use as chromatographic packing, ion exchange material used as membranes are porous only on a molecular scale. Because such pores have vicinal ion exchange sites, ions of the same charge sign as those of the fixed sites are excluded from the IEMs. Monolithic polymers, including ion exchangers derived therefrom, are presently extensively used. When used in a separation column, such a monolithic structure contains an extensively connected porous network. We show here that by controlling the amount of porogen added during the synthesis of monolithic polymers derived from ethylene dimethacrylate glycidyl methacrylate, which are converted to an anion exchanger by treatment with trimethylamine, it is possible to obtain rigid ion exchange polymers that behave like IEMs and allow only one charge type of ions to pass through, i.e., are permselective. We demonstrate successful open tubular cation chromatography suppressor performance. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.