SEQUENCED TWO-DIMENSIONAL LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY OF POLYMER BLENDS. SOURCE OF ERRORS IN THE DATA TREATMENT PROCEDURE

SISKOVA, ALENA; CLEMENTI, LUIS A.; VEGA, JORGE R.; MEIRA, GREGORIO R.; BEREK, DUSAN

Santa Fe

Simposio; XI Simposio Argentino de Polímeros; 2015

Instituto de Desarrollo Tecnologico para la Industria Quimica; Universidad Nacional del Litoral

Sequenced two-dimensional liquid chromatography (S2D-LC) is an analytical technique that can be used to estimate the molar mass distribution (MMD) of constituents of multicomponent polymer systems. This article aims at investigating the main sources of errors that are present in the standard data treatment procedure utilized to process S2D-LC measurements. To this effect, four binary polymer blends of narrow poly(styrene) and poly(methyl methacrylate) were analyzed by S2D-LC with the aim of estimating the MMDs of the individual components. First, liquid chromatography at limiting condition of desorption (LC-LCD) was utilized for separation of both polymers; and then, size exclusion chromatography (SEC) was used to estimate their MMDs. For comparison, all individual components were independently analyzed by SEC. By assuming that SEC produces the ?true? MMDs, errors in the standard S2D-LC procedure were quantified. The main results indicate that the standard data treatment procedure utilized in S2D-LC can introduce meaningful errors in the estimated average molar masses and dispersity indexes, due to band broadening and/or fractionation of each component along the LC-LCD stage.