Entropic-Based Separation of Diastereomers: Size-Exclusion Chromatography with Online Viscometry and Refractometry Detection for Analysis of Blends of Mannose and Galactose Methyl-α-pyranosides at “Ideal” Size-Exclusion Conditions

Characterizing Styrene Monomer and Oligomers by SEC/MALS/VISC/DRI

Worldwide polystyrene (PS) production in 2020 was approximately 27 million metric tons, distributed among many nations, making it one of the most heavily imported and exported chemicals. Commercially produced PS usually possesses a broad molar mass distribution, often with a substantial oligomeric component. The latter can significantly affect processing and end-use, in addition to having potentially hazardous health effects and to impacting the polymer's export classification by regulatory agencies. Quantitation of the oligomeric region of polymers by size-exclusion chromatography with concentration-sensitive and/or static light scattering detection is complicated by the non-constancy of the specific refractive index increment ( ∂ n / ∂ c ) in this region, which affects the calculated amount (mass fraction) of oligomer in a polymer, molar mass averages, and related conclusions regarding macromolecular properties. Here, a multi-detector SEC approach including differential refractometry, multi-angle static light scattering, and differential viscometry has been applied to determining the ∂ n / ∂ c of n -butyl terminated styrene oligomers at each degree of polymerization from monomer to hexamer, and also of a hexadecamer. Large changes in this parameter from one degree of polymerization to the next are observed, including but not restricted to the fact that the ( ∂ n / ∂ c ) of the monomer is less than half that of PS polymer at identical experimental conditions. As part of this study, the individual effects of injection volume, flow rate, and temperature on chromatographic resolution were examined. Incorporation of the on-line viscometer allowed for accurate determination of the intrinsic viscosity and viscometric radius of the monomer and oligomers.

Size-Exclusion Chromatography: A Twenty-First Century Perspective

Now in its sixth decade, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) remains the premier method by which to determine the molar mass averages and distributions of natural and synthetic macromolecules. Aided by its coupling to a variety and multiplicity of detectors, it has also shown its ability to characterize a host of other physicochemical properties, such as branching, chemical, and sequence length heterogeneity size distribution; chain rigidity; fractal dimension and its change as a function of molar mass; etc. SEC is also an integral part of most macromolecular two-dimensional separations, providing a second-dimension size-based technique for determining the molar mass of the components separated in the first dimension according to chemical composition, thus yielding the combined chemical composition and molar mass distributions of a sample. While the potential of SEC remains strong, our awareness of the pitfalls and challenges inherent to it and to its practice must also be ever-present. This Perspective aims to highlight some of the advantages and applications of SEC, to bring to the fore these caveats with regard to its practice, and to provide an outlook as to potential areas for expansion and growth.

Multi-detector hydrodynamic chromatography of colloids: following in Hamish Small's footsteps

Hamish Small, scientist extraordinaire, is best known as the inventor of both ion chromatography and hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC). The latter has experienced a renaissance during the last decade-plus, thanks principally to its coupling to a multiplicity of physicochemical detection methods and to the structural and compositional information this provides. Detection methods such as light scattering (both multi-angle static and dynamic), viscometry, and refractometry can combine to yield insight into macromolecular or colloidal size, structure, shape, and molar mass, all as a function of one another and continuously across a sample's chromatogram. It was the author's great fortune to have known Hamish during the last decade of his life, before his passing in 2019. Here, a brief personal recollection is followed by an introduction to HDC and its application, in quadruple-detector packed-column mode, to the analysis of a commercial colloidal silica with an elongated shape.