Microscope-assisted UV-initiated preparation of well-defined porous polymer monolithic plugs in glass microchips for peptide preconcentration

Herein, highly defined monolithic beds were prepared in glass microchips by photopolymerization of ethylene glycol methacrylate phosphate (EGMP), acrylamide, and N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (BAA) using an epifluorescence microscope as UV-irradiation source. Such a fast and easy method allowed precise control of (i) the edge shape, (ii) the location along the microchannel, and (iii) the length of the monolithic plugs within glass microchips. The addition of hydroquinone, a polymerization inhibitor, to the prepolymerization mixture was beneficial for achieving local and robust incorporation of monoliths with sharp edges within microchannels. The monolith length was easily tuned from 160 to 400 μm through simple change in the magnification of the objective and was found to be repeatable (relative standard deviation7.5%). Further application for on-chip monolith-assisted solid - phase extraction is demonstrated for fluorescently labeled peptide. Both binding and subsequent elution behaviors were found to fully agree with a cation-exchange mechanism in concordance with the presence of phosphate groups at the monolith surface. Graphical abstract In-chip microscope-UV-synthesis of monolithic plugs with sharp edges.