Polymer monolithic columns with I.D. between 100 and 320m were prepared by in-situ polymerization of styrene and divinylbenzene in fused silica capillaries. The effects of monolithic column I.D. on the separation of proteins in reversed-phase capillary-liquid chromatography under gradient elution were systemically studied. The loading capacity was positively proportional to the volume of the stationary phase. It was found that the smaller diameter columns showed better performance for protein separation. The minimum plate height decreases from 34.99m (320m I.D. column) to 5.39m (100m I.D. column) for a retained protein. After studying the three parameters of the Van Deemter equation, it was interpreted that the smaller diameter can provide less flow resistance and the better performance may also be improved by the increasing of the effective diffusion. This conclusion was also supported by the data of separation permeability and breakthrough curves.

Electrosorption-enhanced solid-phase microextraction (EE-SPME) based on activated carbon fiber (ACF) was developed for determination of aniline in aqueous solution. A porous ACF, served as working electrode in electrosorption procedure, was prepared and attached to a commercial manual SPME device. Parameters affecting the adsorption efficiency were investigated. Under optimized condition, whichwas 400mVelectrosorption potential, 0.01M Na2SO4 electrolyte, pH 7, and electrosorption at 40℃ for 10min, the method exhibited wide linear range (0.1-100gL−1, R2=0.9980), good repeatability of adsorption (RSD 6.15%, n=6), and low detection limit (0.02 gL−1). The feasibility of the method was evaluated by analyzing lake water spiked with aniline. Comparison was made with direct immersion (DI) ACF-SPME without electrosorption enhancement. The proposed procedure was demonstrated to be a simple, fast, sensitive sample preparation method for determination of aniline in water samples.

A bio-anode reactor and a bio-cathode reactor were developed to investigate the microenvironments around anodes and cathodes and their effects on denitrification. With an applied current of 40mA, the oxidation-reduction potentials (ORPs) in the bio-cathode and bio-anode reactors were 100-200 mV lower and 50mV higher, respectively, than that in the control reactor (a normal bio-reactor). The cathode reaction enhanced denitrification and the anode reaction inhibited denitrification. At 40 mA, the denitrification rate in the bio-cathode reactor was 55.1% higher than that in the control reactor. At 75mA, the denitrification rate in the bio-anode reactor was just 33.5% of that in control reactor. Electric current of less than 20mA had no effect on the most probable number (MPN) of denitrifiers, but at 75mA, the MPN of denitrifiers decreased by 90% in the bio-anode reactor. In the bio-cathode reactor, the MPN of denitrifiers increased more than 100% for the lower ORP environment produced by a cathode reaction at 75mA.