Fractionation

The enormous diversity of polymers with respect to molecular weight, molecular architecture, and – in the case of copolymers – also the content and arrangement of dissimilar monomers requires well-targeted methods for the separation of the different species that are contained in a given sample. This chapter presents the most abundant fractionation procedures, which are either based on thermodynamic driving forces (like in the case of liquid–liquid phase separation) or on kinetic effects (as with field-flow fractionation).