Preparation of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane based hybrid monoliths by ring‐opening polymerization for capillary LC and CEC

A new organic–inorganic hybrid monolith was prepared by the ring‐opening polymerization of octaglycidyldimethylsilyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) with 1,4‐butanediamine (BDA) using 1‐propanol, 1,4‐butanediol, and PEG 10 000 as a porogenic system. Benefiting from the moderate phase separation process, the resulting poly(POSS‐co‐BDA) hybrid monolith possessed a uniform microstructure and exhibited excellent performance in chromatographic applications. Neutral, acidic, and basic compounds were successfully separated on the hybrid monolith in capillary LC (cLC), and high column efficiencies were achieved in all of the separations. In addition, as the amino groups could generate a strong EOF, the hybrid monolith was also applied in CEC for the separation of neutral and polar compounds, and a satisfactory performance was obtained. These results demonstrate that the poly(POSS‐co‐BDA) hybrid monolith is a good separation media in chromatographic separations of various types of compounds by both cLC and CEC.