From its dawn in the sixties of the last century size exclusion chromatography (SEC/GPC) has developed in a well-established and the most powerful method for the determination of molar mass distribution and, in combination with a multi-angle light scattering detector (MALS), also for the characterization of polymer conformation, aggregation and branching. However, the method often fails to completely separate branched polymers, polymers containing ultra-high molar mass fractions and/or swollen supermolecular structures, and polymers interacting with SEC column packing. These polymers can be effectively separated by asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4). Acrylic copolymers prepared by emulsion polymerization are typical example of polymers for which SEC separation often fails. The presentation gives a brief overview of the AF4 principles as well as several examples of the AF4-MALS characterization of polymers that cannot be correctly characterized by SEC-MALS. An example of AF4-MALS analysis of polymer containing ultra-high molar mass species is shown in Figure 1.

Asymmetric flow field flow fractionation: An effective separation technique for polymers for which SEC/GPC fails

249th National Meeting (2015)

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