Size-Exclusion Chromatography and Its Optimization for Material Science

A theoretical analysis of improving the separation power of size exclusion chromatography by decreasing flowrate is conveyed. The variance of the elution curves is larger than expected form estimated dispersity in molecular weight, Mw/Mn. The shape of the elution curves depends strongly on experimental conditions. When the experimental conditions are approaching those to the ideal separation, judged by statistical properties of the curves, both skew and excess kurtosis of the elution curves increase near the exclusion limit in accord with theoretical prediction. In analyses of polystyrene standards by size exclusion chromatography for polymers of molecular weight about thirty thousand and higher, the longitudinal diffusion is not important even at low flow-rates. *Corresponding author: Milos Netopilík, Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Heyrovský Sq. 2, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic, Tel: +42