Symmetric and asymmetric H-shaped polybutadienes were synthesized by living anionic polymerization. While gel permeation chromatography (GPC) suggested such materials to be near-monodisperse, temperature gradient interaction chromatography (TGIC) and rheology experiments indicated the presence of impurities that significantly affected their rheological behavior. GPC is shown to be inadequate for characterizing the purity of such branched macromolecules. On the other hand, TGIC is shown to be an essential technique for both characterizing the purity of such materials and identifying and quantifying the impurities.

Synthesis and molecular characterization of symmetric and asymmetric H-shaped polybutadienes: Major limitations of GPC

246th National Meeting (2013)

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