Synthesis and evaluation of polymer-based zwitterionic stationary phases for separation of ionic species

Three different zwitterionic functional stationary phases for chromatography were synthesized on the basis of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) polymeric particles. Two synthesis routes, producing materials designated S300-ECH-DMA-PS or S300-TC-DMA-PS, involved activation of the hydroxyl groups of the HEMA material with epichlorohydrin or thionyl chloride, respectively, followed by dimethylamination and quaternizing 3-sulfopropylation with 1,3-propane sultone. The third route was accomplished by attaching methacrylate moieties to the HEMA through a reaction with methacrylic anhydride, followed by graft photopolymerization of the zwitterionic monomer 3-N,N-dimethyl-N-(methacryloyloxyethyl)ammonium] propanesulfonate, initiated by benzoin methyl ether under 365-nm light. According to elemental analyses, both the S300-ECH-DMA-PS and S300-TC-DMA-PS materials appeared to have overall charge stoichometries close to unity, whereas the grafted material, S300-MAA-SPE, seemed to carry an excess of anion exchange sites in addition to the zwitterionic groups. Yet all three zwitterionic stationary phases were capable of separating inorganic anions and cations simultaneously and independently using aqueous solutions of perchloric acid or perchlorate salts as eluent, albeit with markedly different selectivities. On the S300-TC-DMA-PS and S300-MAA-SPE materials, the retention times increased for cations and decreased for anions with increasing eluent concentration, whereas with the S300-ECH-DMA-PS material, the retention times of both anions and cations decreased with increasing eluent concentration. These results demonstrate the importance of choosing appropriate synthesis conditions in order to prepare covalently bonded zwitterionic separation materials with an acceptable charge balance.