Molar Mass Distribution and Size of Hydroxyethyl Starch Fractions Obtained by Continuous Polymer Fractionation

By the use of continuous polymer fractionation (CPF) the initial polymer can be separated into fractions of different molar masses, which makes it possible to obtain hydroxyethyl starch (HES) fractions tailor-made for specific application. Two samples of HES (HES A and HES B) were fractionated by means of CPF. By size-exclusion chromatography-multi-angle laser light-scattering-differential refractive index (SEC/ MALLS/DRI) measurements it was shown that CPF is able to remove the low-molar-mass components and to adjust the samples to various desired molar masses with lower polydispersities than the original samples. In terms of the weight-average mean molar mass M w , the sol fractions have …