Basic Experimental Apparatus and Procedures

In the elution step, pure solvent is flowed through the column as the temperature is increased. As the dissolution temperature of the polymer is reached, the polymer outer layers dissolve back into the solvent in the reverse order they were precipitated. The elution step is carried out in different ways for A-Tref and P-Tref. Table 1 summarizes the most relevant characteristic of both methods [5]. 

In A-Tref, the column temperature in the elution step is increased at a slow, constant rate, while the polymer concentration in the eluent is monitored with an on-line mass-sensitive detector to obtain the Tref profile (the distri- 

Fractions are collected continuously by gradually increasing the elution temperature. 

Information on macromolecular structure is obtained on-line by means of a calibration curve. 

Requires smaller columns and smaller sample sizes. 

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