Monoliths bearing hydrophilic surfacesrnfor in vitro biomedical samples analysis

摘要

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