Packing material types

Figure 6.22 Effect of packing material type on retention time.

Next, the packing material type and size are selected. Among the different types of packing material available, of which mesh, rings, and saddles are the most common, the type most suited for a particular application is best determined based on available data for the different types. Information on each type includes pressure drop per foot, HETP, corrosion resistance, etc. Once a decision has been made regarding the packing type, its nominal size should be selected. Smaller... 

Polystyrene. There are two types of expandable polystyrene processes expandable polystyrene for molded articles and expandable polystyrene for loose-fill packing materials. 

Compared more with tray type performance than other packing materials. Usually used in large diameter towers, above about 24-inch dia., but smaller to 10-inch dia. available. Metal only. 

Whereas for organic SEC column technology a particular type of bead (PS/ DVB) is used almost universally, in the field of aqueous SEC there have been a variety of approaches to derive polymeric beads suitable for the application. For this reason there is more secrecy about the chemical composition of the packing materials and columns produced by different manufacturers. 

The number of packing sizes, types (designs), and materials of construction currently available to the designer has increased considerably. To select a packing for a process application requires a weighing of information and an evaluation of the closest comparable data. 

Various types of porous polymers have also been developed as column packing material for gas chromatography, e.g. the Porapak series (Waters Associates) and the Chromosorb series (Johns Manville) which are styrene... 

The absorption of reactants (or desorption of products) in trickle-bed operation is a process step identical to that occurring in a packed-bed absorption process unaccompanied by chemical reaction in the liquid phase. The information on mass-transfer rates in such systems that is available in standard texts (N2, S6) is applicable to calculations regarding trickle beds. This information will not be reviewed in this paper, but it should be noted that it has been obtained almost exclusively for the more efficient types of packing material usually employed in absorption columns, such as rings, saddles, and spirals, and that there is an apparent lack of similar information for the particles of the shapes normally used in gas-liquid-particle operations, such as spheres and cylinders. 

Having chosen the test mixture and mobile diase composition, the chromatogram is run, usually at a fairly fast chart speed to reduce errors associated with the measurement of peak widths, etc.. Figure 4.10. The parameters calculated from the chromatogram are the retention volume and capacity factor of each component, the plate count for the unretained peak and at least one of the retained peaks, the peak asymmetry factor for each component, and the separation factor for at least one pair of solutes. The pressure drop for the column at the optimum test flow rate should also be noted. This data is then used to determine two types of performance criteria. These are kinetic parameters, which indicate how well the column is physically packed, and thermodynamic parameters, which indicate whether the column packing material meets the manufacturer s specifications. Examples of such thermodynamic parameters are whether the percentage oi bonded... 

In principle, any type of sample can be analysed by SEC provided that it can be solubilised and that there are no enthalpic interactions between sample and packing material. By definition then, this technique cannot be carried out on vulcanisates and even unvulcanised fully compounded rubber samples can present problems due to filler-rubber interactions. The primary use of SEC is to determine the whole MWD of polymers and the various averages (number, viscosity, weight, z-average) based on a calibration curve and to allow qualitative comparisons of different samples. Many commercial polymers have a broad MWD leading to strong peak overlap in the chromatography of complex multicomponent systems. 

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