Alternative Approaches for the Estimation of the Band Broadening Parameters in Single-Detection Size Exclusion Chromatography

VEGA, J.R.; SCHNOLL BITAI, I.

Los Cocos, Córdoba (Argentina)

Simposio; III Simposio Binacional de Polímeros Argentino - Chileno ARCHIPOL'05 (VII Simposio Argentino de Polímeros y VII Simposio Chileno de Química y Fisicoquímica de Polímeros; 2005

Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) is a widely used technique for measuring the molar mass distribution (MMD) of a polymer. Band broadening (BB) is mainly due to axial dispersion in the columns, and strongly distorts the chromatogram shapes when analyzing a polymer with a narrow MMD, or a multimodal chromatogram with sharp elbows and/or narrow peaks. In such cases, it is essential to apply methods for correcting BB, and to this effect the extent of BB must be accurately known. The aim of this work is to propose a method for estimating g(V) from the measurement of a narrow linear homopolymer in a chromatograph fit with only a differential refractometer (DR).