Robust carbon monolith having hierarchical porosity

A method of preparing a monolithic chromatography column comprising the step of:

• providing a carbon monolith precursor having a particulate, porosity-generating fugitive phase dispersed therein, said precursor comprising at least one carbonizable polymer, and said fugitive phase comprising mesoparticles and macroparticles;
• carbonizing said carbon monolith precursor to form a carbon monolith comprising said fugitive phase;
• removing said fugitive phase from said carbon monolith by dissolution to form a robust, porous carbon monolith characterized by a skeleton size having a wall thickness of at least 100 nm and a hierarchical pore structure having macropores and mesopores, said macropores having a size ranging from 0.05 μm to 100 μm, and said mesopores having a size ranging from 18 Å to 50 nm;
• and
• encapsulating said porous carbon monolith within a cladding material which conforms to the shape of the resulting carbon monolith to form a chromatographic column.