A Qualitative Analysis of Secondary Mechanisms in SEC of Polymers Through the Mean Value of the Viscosimetric Exponent

Abstract Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) universal calibration curves for poly(dimethylsiloxane), polybutadiene and poly(2-vinylpyridine) samples have been obtained in columns packed with cross-linked polystyrene gel using cyclohexane, toluene, benzene, dioxane and tetrahydrofuran as eluents at 25°C. The eluents exhibit different thermodynamic quality for the polymeric solutes and for the gel matrix which is reflected in the values of their Mark-Houwink-Sakurada exponents a. The plots of log(hydrodynamic volume) versus retention volume for the polymeric solutes in different eluents are displaced to higher retention volumes than that of THF-polybutadiene (ideal SEC), evidencing the exist…