Chitosan
stands as a sustainable, active, and eco-friendly biomass
that meets eight aspects of green chemistry principles. The chitosan-based
liquid chromatography stationary phase provides superior physiochemical
properties including a cationic hydrophilic surface, porosity, and
mechanical strength; however, it lacks solubility in an organic solvent.
A low-cost one-pot in situ free radical polymerization strategy was
used to fabricate chitosan-functionalized methacrylate monolithic
columns (Ch-GMA-co-EDMA) with hydrophilic and electrostatic
properties. The polymerization mixtures were systematically optimized
using mixture design to study the effects of compositions on flow-through
processes involving porosity and permeability. The chitosan-functionalized
methacrylate monomer and monolithic columns were characterized by
using ATR-FTIR, TGA, DGA, and SEM. The obtained columns provide high
chromatographic performance and satisfactory selectivity for organic
polar, neutral, and charged compounds such as phenols, nucleic bases,
nucleosides, and anionic pesticides. The results revealed that the
amino and hydroxyl moieties of the chitosan monoliths functioned for
both hydrophilic as well as electrostatic trapping of polar compounds,
additionally promoting hydrogen bonding interaction with the analytes.