High performance liquid chromatography polymer characterization

Lee HC, Chang T. Polymer molecular weight characterization by temperature gradient high performance liquid chromatography. Polymer 1996 37 5747. 

Kutsuna, H., Ohtsu, Y., and Yamaguchi, M., Synthesis and characterization of highly stable polymer-coated aminosilica packing material for high-performance liquid chromatography, ]. Chromatogr., 635, 187, 1993. 

In this chapter, high-performance liquid chromatography of oligomers and (high) polymers (polymer HPLC) will be briefly presented. As mentioned in Section 16.1, there exist several monographs, chapter in books, and review papers on this subject, for example [1-33], Most of them contain numerous examples of the HPLC separation and molecular characterization of particular macromolecular substances. Therefore, this chapter discusses almost exclusively the general principles of polymer HPLC and only few selected examples of practical applications will be mentioned for illustration. 

High-performance liquid chromatography of synthetic polymers is a set of very useful experimental procedures allowing separation and molecular characterization of many kinds of macromolecules. All particular members of this group of methods and their mutual combinations necessitate further research. Even the oldest and likely the simplest method of polymer HPLC, namely SEC, which is often erroneously considered a mature procedure, deserves further intensive development. It is hoped that the basic information presented in this chapter will help understand not only the principles but also the challenges of polymer HPLC. 

Ogino, K., Sato, H., Aihara, Y, Suzuki, H., and Moriguchi, S. 1995. Preparation and characterization of monodisperse oligo(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate polymer beads for aqueous high-performance liquid chromatography. Journal of Chromatography A, 699 67-72. 

Gradient high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been useful for the characterization of copolymers (14-19). In such experiments, careful choice of separation conditions is a conditio sine qua non. Otherwise, low resolution for the polymeric sample will obstruct the separation. However, the separation in HPLC, dominated by enthalpic interactions, perfectly complements the entropic nature of the SEC retention mechanism in the characterization of complex polymer formulations. 

C. F. Simpson, Practical High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Heyden, London, 1976. H. Inagaki, Polymer separation and characterization by thin layer chromatography,Polym. Sci. 24, 189 (1977). 

Grootveld M, Bell JD, Halliwell B, Aruoma OI, Bomford A, Sadler PJ (1989) Nontransferrin-bound iron in plasma or serum from patients with idiopathic hemochromatosis. Characterization by high performance liquid chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. J Biol Chem 264 4417-4422 Gyparaki M, Porter JB, Huehns ER, Hider RC (1986) Evaluation in vivo of hydro-xypyrid-4-one iron chelators intended for the treatment of iron overload by the oral route. Biochem Soc Trans 14 1181-1181 Hallaway PE, Eaton JW, Panter SS, Hedlund BE (1989) Modulation of deferoxamine toxicity and clearance by covalent attachment to biocompatible polymers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86 10108-10112... 

Other techniques available are destructive to the sample and are used only if absolutely necessary. Thus thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are possible as further methods of dye identification, and pyrolysis gas chromatography (see Box 2.1) can also be used to characterize the polymer type. 

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