Retention properties of macroporous spongy monolith and its application for concentration of polyaromatic...

We report the fundamental chromatographic retention properties of spongy monolith that was previously reported as a novel separation medium for the effective pretreatment of environmental pollutants. According to the detailed examination on liquid chromatographic evaluations using hydrophobic, hydrophilic, and polyaromatic compounds as solutes, the spongy monolith consisted of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) and having macroporous co-continuous structures showed the selective retention ability for polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), especially coplanar compounds, whereas lower selectivity was observed for typical hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds compared with the commonly used C18 medium. Moreover, we demonstrate the effective preconcentration of benzo[a]pyrene using a spongy monolith as a pretreatment column of an online column switching HPLC system.