The goal of this project is to prepare new polymer stationary phases for HPLC that yield more efficient chromatography than polystyrene- divinylbenzene. The approach will be synthesize a polymer consisting predominantly of alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic units. The structures of these units and their relative concentrations will be adjusted to produce a material that has similar swelling tendencies in both polar and nonpolar solvents. Therefore, this material can be porous without tending to swell or shrink with changing mobile phase composition. It will not have to be as highly crosslinked and rigid as polystyrene-divinylbenzene. This will improve chromatographic efficiency because the rate of mass transfer through the polymer phase will be faster thatn with polystyrene-divinylbenzene.
The specific aim of Phase I is to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by preparing a polymer stationary phase that yields a reduced plate of 4 or less while retaining stability and capacity similar to commercially available columns. In Phase II, the chromatographic characteristics of these phases will be further explored.
The worldwide market for reversed phase HPLC columns is several hundred million dollars. Success in this project would put Fenris Technology Research, Inc., in position to capture a significant share of this market.
