6533b7d6fe1ef96bd1265ac7

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Precipitation chromatography. III. Optimization of the experimental conditions and determination of the polydispersity of fractions

subject

description

The influence of the solvent–nonsolvent gradient and the temperature gradient on the efficiency of the precipitation chromatography is investigated with radically and anionically prepared polystyrene samples. Only a combination of both gradients gives optimal effectiveness of the column. The separating power of the column was determined by using mixtures of well defined samples. From the elution curves of the mixtures the nonuniformity Ufr of fractions can be estimated. For fractions of anionically prepared polystyrenes Ufr is on the average 0.001; this value is of the same order of magnitude as the statistical error. These results show that with this chromatographic method it is possible to determine the narrow molecular weight distributions of anionically prepared polystyrenes (or other polymers) with an accuracy sufficient for kinetic studies.