E u r o p e a n C o n g r e s s o n
Advanced Chemistry
Advanced Chemistry 2018
J u l y 1 2 - 1 3 , 2 0 1 8
P a r i s , F r a n c e
Page 47
Journal of Organic & Inorganic Chemistry
ISSN: 2472-1123
H
igh performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods represent the most important tool for molecular characterization of
synthetic polymers. Mean molar mass (MM) and molar mass distribution (MMD) of linear and branched homo-polymers can
be readily determined by gel permeation (size exclusion) chromatography (GPC/SEC). GPC/SEC also provides several other useful
data such as limiting viscosity numbers, constants of viscosity law, and sizes of macromolecules in solution and even extent of
preferential solvation of polymers in mixed solvents. Recent progress in GPC/SEC comprises improved instrumental hardware
and data processing procedures. High sample throughput of the ultra-fast GPC/SEC enables acceleration of analyses, which is
especially important in combinatorial material chemistry and in production control. Still, further improvements of the SEC method
are needed, which include its hardware, especially columns and detectors, as well as standardization of sample preparation,
measurement, and data processing. GPC/SEC exhibits excellent intra-laboratory repeatability, which evokes a notion of its high
reliability. However, recent series of the round robin tests revealed surprisingly poor inter-laboratory reproducibility of results.
Evidently, accuracy of many GPC/SEC results may be rather limited. GPC/SEC hardly enables precise molecular characterization
of complex polymer systems, which possess more than one distribution in their molecular characteristics. Typically, polymer
mixtures, copolymers and functional polymers exhibit besides MMD also distribution in their chemical structure. To assess above
distributions, new HPLC procedures are developed. These are based on the controlled combinations of entropic (exclusion) and
enthalpic (interaction) retention mechanisms within one column or in a series of independent separation systems. Enthalpic
retention mechanisms in HPLC of synthetic polymers include adsorption, partition, phase separation. The resulting approaches
are denoted coupled polymer HPLC and two- or multi-dimensional polymer HPLC. We shall review recent progress and problems
in GPC/SEC, as well as in coupled and two-dimensional polymer HPLC procedures and outline anticipated future development.
dusan.berek@savba.skProgress in liquid chromatography of synthetic
macromolecules
Dusan Berek
Polymer Institute of the Slovak Academy of Science, Slovakia
J Org Inorg Chem 2018, Volume: 4
DOI: 10.21767/2472-1123-C2-006