Acid-prepared mesoporous silica ("APMS") shows significant advances over commercially available silica in high performance liquid chromatography ("HPLC"), a technique commonly used to isolate molecules. HPLC columns containing APMS show dramatically enhanced molecular retention times and improved peak-to-peak resolutions compared to commercial HPLC columns. These benefits are due to the physical properties of APMS, which consists of regular 5 um spheres with a surface area of 1100 m2/g. The proposed research has three main goals: (1) to initiate studies on larger-scale production of APMS; (2) to expand previous studies on chiral separations; and (3) to study the potential uses of APMS in size-exclusion chromatography. The ultimate goal of this research will be to produce a suite of HPLC column materials. The HPLC columns market is $500M and growing at 8% annually. Because HPLC is a standard research tool, successful commercialization of APMS will benefit society and researchers by accelerating the major advances in understanding fundamental life processes. In particular, APMS could facilitate liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and chiral separations
