Monoliths bearing hydrophilic surfaces for in vitro biomedical samples analysis

Abstract

This contribution presents a condensed overview of strategies recently implemented to the synthesis of polymeric monoliths with well-defined surface characteristics with the aim to develop micro-sized permeable supports for flow-through separation applications in the context of life sciences. This review does not provide an exhaustive list of reported studies about the field, but it is rather intended to discuss about what caught our eyes in the literature within the last years. In this contribution, we present successively (a) what monoliths are and (b) the means to be implemented to evaluate their physico-chemical characteristics, (c) a discussion about hydrophilic and biocompatible monoliths, focusing on their preparation through both one step and multistep strategies together with their application as micro-column stationary phases for chromatography and electrochromatography. The type of separation modes expands from unique – hydrophilic interaction – to dual mixed-mode – involving a combination of hydrophilic interaction and ion-exchange. Finally, (d) future prospects relevant to the field are presented, exclusively considering nanoparticle-containing monoliths.