Porous polymer monoliths: Preparation of sorbent materials with high-surface areas and controlled surface chemistry for high-throughput, online, solid-phase extraction of polar organic compounds

Porous monolithic materials with high surface areas have been prepared from commercial 80% divinylbenzene. The pore properties of these materials are controlled by the type and composition of the porogenic solvent and by the percentage of cross-linking monomer (divinylbenzene) in the polymerization mixture. Surface area was found to increase with the divinylbenzene content of the monolith. Using high-grade divinylbenzene and a suitable porogenic solvent, monolithic materials with specific surface areas as high as 400 m²/g yet still permeable to liquids at reasonable back pressure were obtained for the first time. A macroporous material with hydrodynamic properties optimized for solid-phase extraction has been designed and its permeability and adsorption ability was demonstrated by adsorbing phenols at flow velocities that exceed those of current materials by a factor of 30. A unique set of polymerization conditions had to be developed to allow the incorporation of polar 2-hydroxylethyl methacrylate into the hydrophobic nonpolar backbone of the divinylbenzene monolithic material. This improves wettability while high-flow properties are maintained and unusually high recoveries of polar compounds are allowed.