Frantisek SVEC

The Molecular Foundry, E.O. Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory, Facility Director,
Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis,
Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
International Research Center for Soft Matter
Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Beijing 100029, China

Abstract
The modern monolithic columns emerged more than two decades ago.
While the early polymer-based monoliths were used for the rapid
separations of proteins, current literature describes a number of
different applications in addition to typical liquid chromatography
demonstrating versatility of the monoliths. For example, monolithic
columns prepared using hypercrosslinking possess a large surface area
in numerous mesopores and enable efficient rapid separation of small
molecules. New chemistries are being developed to produce monolithic
columns for the separation in various chromatographic modes.
Modification of pore surface with nanostructures is another recent
trend that extends applications of monoliths in the arena of highly
selective fishing out systems. Large scale monolithic columns are now
also available for industrial applications. Thin monolithic layers are
gaining more attention since they enable efficient separations of
proteins combined with mass spectrometry or SERS using very simple
means. Monoliths also serve as supports for immobilization of enzymes
to form very active enzymatic reactors.