Gradient HPLC of Copolymers and Chromatographic Cross-Fractionation

The combination of size exclusion chromatography and gradient elution HPLC allows the analytical cross-fractionation of polymers. The author has contributed substantially to the development and promotion of this new, fast and powerful analytical technique in polymer science. He provides an in-depth treatment of methodology, instrumentation, and applications. Seperate chapters deal with the chemical heterogeneity of copolymers, solubility, adsorption processes, mobile and stationary phases, detection and quantitative evaluations in gradient HPLC of polymers. The author's practical expertise and the authoritative presentation of the subject will appeal to all polymer scientists, chromatographers and biochemists in industry and academia.

"The problems involved in separating complex macromolecules require under standing not only the chromatographic process but also the physicochemical behavior of the solutes." This sentence from the pen of Phyllis R. Brown 1, University of Rhode Island, can certainly be applied to synthetic copolymers whose structure is very complex indeed. Thus it may be forgiven that a book on copolymer HPLC has been written not by a trained chromatographer but by someone from the polymer side. The HPLC of synthetic polymers is often understood to mean only a synonym for size exclusion chromatography. The latter method separates polymers according to the size of the macromolecules and enables the molecular weight distribution of a sample to be evaluated. But as early as 1936, Mark and Saito attempted chromatographic fractionation of cellulose acetate on a charcoal-like adsorbent made from blood. HPLC adsorption chromatography was first applied to copolymer analysis by Teramachi et al. in 1979. Since then, another branch of polymer HPLC has arisen which has the capacity of separating copolymers by composition and enables the chemical composition distribution to be evaluated. The technique requires a suitable elution program and is mainly carried out as gradient elution."

Cross-fractionation is a new, fast and powerful method of polymer characterisation. This book is written by an active contributor to this technique. He provides an in-depth treatment of the subject for polymer scientists, analytical chemists, and biochemists in industry and academia.