Preparative Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC- Prep) is used for the fractionation of polymer samples on a preparative scale. The elution order is from high molar masses to low molar masses. Therefore, the method can be used for determination of oligomers content and purification of polymer sample (removal of low molecular weight impurities, e.g., residual initiator, additives). These low molecular weight components are eluted after the main fraction of the polymer and can be readily removed by “end-shaving”. The polymer fraction (up to 100 mg/run) can be recovered by removing the solvent (under vacuum). The M_n and M_w/M_n of the samples can be determined by the analytical GPC.

Equipment

Pump: Waters 1525 Binary HPLC Pump

Column- Agilent Technologies PLGEL PREP, 10 µM, 10E5Å, 300x25MM, HMW, part # PL1210-6150.

Detectors:

Waters 2414 Differential Refractometer (RI).

Waters 2998 PDA

Solvent: chloroform with 0.25% of TEA

Flow Rate: 10 mL/min for PLGEL column and up to 6 mL/min for Ultrastyragel

Injection: manual injector with tube coiled, 2 mL