Liquid chromatography of polymers under limiting conditions of adsorption. IV. Sample recovery

The high performance liquid chromatography of polymers under limiting conditions of adsorption (LC LCA) separates macromolecules, either according to their chemical structure or physical architecture, while molar mass effect is suppressed. A polymer sample is injected into an adsorption-active column flushed with an adsorption promoting eluent. The sample solvent is a strong solvent which prevents sample adsorption. As a result, macromolecules of sample elute within the zone of their original solvent to be discriminated from other, non-adsorbing polymer species, which elute in the exclusion mode. LC LCA sample recovery has been studied in detail for poly (methyl methacrylate)s using a bare silica gel column and an eluent comprised toluene (adsorli) and tetrahydrofuran (desorli). Sample solvent was tetrahydrofuran. It was found that a large part of injected sample may be fully retained within the LC LCA columns. The amount of retained polymer increases with decreasing packing pore size and with higher sample molar masses and, likely, also with the column diameter. The extent of full retention of sample does not depend of sample volume. An additional portion of the injected desorli sample solvent (a tandem injection) does not fully eliminate full retention of the sample fraction and the reduced recovery associated with it. The injected sample is retained along the entire LC LCA column. The reduced sample recovery restricts applicability of many LC LCA systems to oligomers and to discrimination of the non-adsorbing minor macromolecular components of complex polymer mixtures from the adsorbing major component(s). The full retention of sample molecules within columns may also complicate the application of other liquid chromatographic methods, which combine entropic and enthalpic retention mechanisms for separation of macromolecules.     

Liquid chromatography of synthetic polymers under critical conditions of enthalpic interactions 4: Sample recovery

Reduced sample recovery is a frequent feature of LC of macromolecules under critical conditions of enthalpic interactions (LC CC). Several methods of assessment of LC CC sample recovery are compared. A novel approach is based on an online combination of the. The LC CC column with a noninteractive SEC column. It provides not only the amount but also the molar mass of the eluted/withheld polymer. The procedure was tested with poly(methyl methacrylate), bare silica gel column packings, and “critical eluent” tetrahydrofuran/toluene. It was shown that macromolecules with higher molar masses were preferentially trapped within the LC CC column packing so that the eluted part of the sample was no longer representative. The incomplete polymer elution can make the LC CC polymer analyses susceptible to significant experimental errors.     

Liquid chromatography of polymers under limiting conditions of adsorption: III. Role of experimental variables

LC of polymers under limiting conditions of adsorption (LC LCA) is a novel method based on different mobility of (pore excluded) macromolecules compared to (pore permeating) solvent molecules. Polymer sample is injected in a solvent preventing its adsorption within the column. Eluent promotes sample adsorption. Under these conditions, macromolecules cannot leave its initial solvent and elute from the column independently of their molar mass. In contrast, a less interactive simultaneously injected polymer leaves its initial solvent zone and is eluted in the size exclusion mode. As a result, chemically different polymer species can be discriminated. The effect of selected experimental conditions was studied on the LC LCA behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate)s eluted from bare silica gel columns. The parameters were packing pore diameter, injected sample volume and concentration, as well as column temperature. The size independent elution was only little affected by the above parameters and LC LCA produced well-focused peaks. The LC LCA mechanism was operative even at a very large sample of both volume and concentration. This makes LC LCA a robust and user-friendly method, likely suitable also for characterization of minor components of polymer mixtures.     

Liquid Chromatography of Synthetic Polymers under Limiting Conditions of Insolubility III

Summary Performance was evaluated of silica based commercial monolithic rod-like columns in liquid chromatography of synthetic polymers under limiting conditions of enthalpic interactions (LC LC). LC LC employs the barrier effect of the pore permeating and therefore slowly eluting small molecules toward the pore excluded, fast eluting macromolecules. Phase separation (precipitation) barrier action was applied in present study. The barrier was created either by the narrow pulse of an appropriate nonsolvent injected into the column just before the sample solution (LC LC of insolubility – LC LCI) or by the eluent itself. In the latter case, the polymer sample was dissolved and injected in a good solvent (LC LC of solubility – LC LCS). In LC LCI, polymer species cannot break thru the nonsolvent zone while in LC LCS they cannot enter eluent, which is their precipitant. Therefore, polymer species keep moving in the zone of their original solvent. Macromolecules eluting under the LC LC mechanism leave the column in the retention volume (V_R) roughly corresponding to V_R of the low molar mass substances and can be efficiently separated from the polymer species non-hindered by the barrier action. The known advantages of monoliths were confirmed. From the point of view of LC LCI and LC LCS the most important quality of monolithic columns represents their excellent permeability, which allows both working at high flow rates and injecting very high (in the range of 5%) sample concentrations. Monolithic column tolerate also extremely high molar mass samples (M>10,000 kg · mol⁻¹). On the other hand, the mesopores (separation pores) of the tested monoliths exhibited rather small volume and wide size distribution. These shortcomings partially impair the permeability advantage of monoliths because in order to obtain high LC LC separation selectivity a tandem of several monolithic columns must be applied. Presence of large mesopores also reduces applicability of monolithic columns for molar masses below about 50 kg · mol⁻¹ because V_Rs of polymers eluted behind the barrier are similar to that of freely eluting species. The non- negligible break-thru phenomenon was observed for the very high polymer molar masses largely eluting behind the barrier. It is assumed that the fraction of very large mesopores present in the monoliths or association/microphase separation of macromolecules may be responsible for this phenomenon. This is why the presently marketed SiO₂ monolithic columns are mainly suitable for the fast purification of the LC LC eluting macromolecules from the polymeric admixtures non-hindered by the barrier-forming liquid. Still, monolithic columns have large potential in the LC LCI and LC LCS procedures provided size (effective diameter) of the mesopores can be reduced and their volume increased.     

Liquid chromatography under limiting conditions of desorption 4 separation of blends containing low-solubility polymers

Low solubility polymers, poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET and poly(butylene terephthalate), PBT were mutually separated at ambient temperature with help of a novel method, liquid chromatography under limiting conditions of desorption, LC LCD. The results demonstrate high selectivity of LC LCD, which enabled discrimination of macromolecules of well similar chemical structure, irrespectively of their molar mass. Above poly(terephthalate)s were also readily base-line separated from the aliphatic biodegradable polyesters poly(l-lactic acid) and poly(butylene adipate). The experimentally feasible LC LCD method produces narrow, focused peaks of polymers eluted behind the adsorption promoting barrier of appropriate liquid. This merit of LC LCD enables discrimination and identification of minor macromolecular constituents of multicomponent polymers and facilitates the application of method as an integral part of two-dimensional liquid chromatography for comprehensive molecular characterization of complex polymer systems.     

Studies on high-performance size-exclusion chromatography of synthetic polymers. I. Volume of silica gel column packing pores reduced by retained macromolecules

Macromolecules, which stay adsorbed within the active size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) column packings may strongly reduce effective volume of the separation pores. This brings about a decrease of retention volumes of the non-retained polymer samples and results in the increased apparent molar mass values. The phenomenon has been demonstrated with a series of poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMA) and a polyethylenoxide (PEO) fully retained by adsorption within macroporous silica gel SEC column from toluene or tetrahydrofuran, respectively. The non-retained probes were polystyrenes (PS) in toluene and both PS and PMMA in THF eluents. The errors in the peak molar mass values determined for the non-retained polymer species using a column saturated with adsorbed macromolecules and considering calibration curves monitored for the original "bare" column packing assumed up to several hundreds of percent. Errors may appear also in the weight and number averages of molar masses calculated from calibration dependences obtained with columns saturated with adsorbed macromolecules. Moreover, the SEC peaks of species eluted from the polymer saturated columns were broadened and in some cases even split. These results demonstrate a necessity not only to periodically re-calibrate the SEC columns but also to remove macromolecules adsorbed within packing in the course of analyses.     

Separation of minor macromolecular constituents from multicomponent polymer systems by means of liquid chromatography under limiting conditions of enthalpic interactions

Minor (<1%) macromolecular constituents may significantly affect physical/utility properties of the multicomponent polymer systems. Separation and molecular characterization of the small amounts of macromolecular additives from the dominant polymer matrices represents an exacting analytical problem. Recently a series of unconventional liquid chromatographic methods was developed for separation of the constituents of polymer blends; their generic name is Liquid chromatography under limiting conditions of enthalpic interactions, LC LC. The LC LC procedures employ the difference in elution rate of the low molecular substances and the macromolecules within the column packed with porous particles. Small molecules permeate practically all pores of the packing and therefore they elute slowly. Polymer species are partially of fully pore excluded and in absence of enthalpic interactions they are rapidly transported along the column. The appropriately chosen low molecular substances promote interactions of macromolecules within the column. If eluted in front of sample, the interaction promoting low molecular substance may create a sort of slowly eluting barrier that is “impermeable” for the interacting macromolecules and efficiently decelerates their fast transport. The blocking action of a barrier differs for macromolecules of distinct nature, which elute from the column with a different rate to be mutually separated irrespectively of their molar mass. In present work, different approaches to the LC LC separations are compared from the point of view of their applicability to complex polymer systems, in which one constituent is present at very low concentration, and also in light of sample recovery. The practical examples are the two- and three-component polymer blends of polystyrenes, poly(methyl methacrylate)s and poly(vinyl acetate)s of different molar mass averages and distributions, as well as the diblock copolymers polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) that contain their parent homopolymers.     

Critical Conditions and Limiting Conditions in Liquid Chromatography of Synthetic Polymers

Distinctions between liquid chromatography of synthetic polymers under critical conditions (LC CC) and liquid chromatography under limiting conditions (LC LC) are elucidated. Surface adsorption retention mechanism of macromolecules is employed in the chromatographic systems composed of 10 and 30 nm pore diameter bare silica gels, poly (methyl methacrylate)s of different molar masses, and mixed eluents acetonitrile/dichloromethane of different compositions, and at different temperatures. Increased robustness of the LC LC methods compared to LC CC is confirmed: the LC LC elution behavior is much less sensitive to eluent composition changes compared to LC CC. Still, the LC CC system under study is, surprisingly robust in terms of temperature variations. LC LC methods produce narrow, focused polymer peaks while a peak broadening is observed in LC CC. The results demonstrate importance of sample solvent applied in the isocratic coupled polymer HPLC methods.     

Size exclusion chromatography-gradients, an alternative approach to polymer gradient chromatography: 2. Separation of poly(meth)acrylates using a size exclusion chromatography-solvent/non-solvent gradient

A gradient ranging from methanol to tetrahydrofuran (THF) was applied to a series of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) standards, using the recently developed concept of SEC-gradients. Contrasting to conventional gradients the samples eluted before the solvent, i.e. within the elution range typical for separations by SEC, however, the high molar mass PMMAs were retarded as compared to experiments on the same column using pure THF as the eluent. The molar mass dependence on retention volume showed a complex behaviour with a nearly molar mass independent elution for high molar masses. This molar mass dependence was explained in terms of solubility and size exclusion effects. The solubility based SEC-gradient was proven to be useful to separate PMMA and poly(n-butyl crylate) (PnBuA) from a poly(t-butyl crylate) (PtBuA) sample. These samples could be separated neither by SEC in THF, due to their very similar hydrodynamic volumes, nor by an SEC-gradient at adsorbing conditions, due to a too low selectivity. The example shows that SEC-gradients can be applied not only in adsorption/desorption mode, but also in precipitation/dissolution mode without risking blocking capillaries or breakthrough peaks. Thus, the new approach is a valuable alternative to conventional gradient chromatography.     

Quantitative aspects of gradient HPLC of copolymers from styrene and ethyl methacrylate

Summary Prerequisite of quantitative evaluation in chromatography is equivalence of sample composition and detector signal. This includes complete retention and proper elution of all sample constituents. In polymer HPLC, complete retention requires a poor starting eluent, a sufficiently active column, and a low ratio of injection volume to column volume. On small pore columns, insufficient retention caused the polymer to elute either in the interstitial volume (sample exclusion), together with the sample solvent, or immediately after the solvent plug.Stat-copoly(styrene/ethyl methacrylate) samples are more difficultly retained thanstat-copoly(styrene/acrylonitrile) specimes. With the former copolymer it could be shown that incomplete retention did not cause sample demixing. In order to gain complete retention, non-exclusion HPLC of polymers should be performed with columns whose solvent volume is at least 50 times as large as the injection volume. This consequence is of practical importance in chromatographic cross-fractionation where rather large volumes of SEC eluate are injected into the apparatus for gradient HPLC.     

Liquid chromatography of macromolecules at the critical adsorption point. II. Role of column packing: Bare silica gel

Liquid chromatography of macromolecules at the critical adsorption point (LC CAP) presents a potentially very powerful method for molecular characterization of complex polymers. However, LC CAP applicability is limited due to various experimental problems. The pore sizes and surface chemistry of the column packings belong to the most important weak points of the method. The LC CAP behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate)s was investigated using bare silica gels of 6, 12, and 100 nm pore sizes and with various amounts of surface silanols. Tetrahydrofuran as the adsorption suppressing liquid and toluene as the adsorption promoting liquid were mixed to form the “nearly critical” eluents. Both pore size and surface chemistry of silica were found to strongly influence the retentive characteristics of the system in the critical adsorption area. Macromolecules that were large enough to be excluded from the packing pores hardly followed the LC CAP rules: their retention volumes changed irregularly with the polymer molar mass and their recovery dropped sharply. The narrow pore silica gel-packed column governed the elution patterns of the whole column set composed of silica gels with different pore sizes. This makes the conventional LC CAP characterization of common polymers with broader molar mass distribution impractical and even not feasible. A hybrid column system was proposed containing narrow pore nonadsorptive column added in series to the meso- and macroporous LC CAP silica gels. This narrow pore column would allow separation of gas, impurities, and system peaks from the polymer peaks. The possible successive changes of the surface of silica gel, e.g., due to formation of silanols by hydrolysis or due to irreversible adsorption of some admixtures from the sample or eluent may make the LC CAP irrepeatable. Pronounced peak broadening was observed in the critical adsorption area and this effect increased strongly with the polymer molar mass. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 1363–1371, 1998     

Semi‐online nanoflow liquid chromatography/matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry of synthetic polymers using an octadecylsilyl‐modified monolithic silica capillary column

We have designed a semi‐online liquid chromatography/matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LC/MALDI‐MS) system to introduce eluent from a octadecylsilyl (ODS) group modified monolithic silica capillary chromatographic column directly onto a sample plate for MALDI‐MS analysis. Our novel semi‐online system is useful for rapidly and sensitively examining the performance of a monolithic capillary column. An additional advantage is the small elution volume of a monolithic capillary column, which allows delicate eluents, such as 1,1,1,3,3,3,‐hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol (HFIP), to be used to achieve cost‐effective analysis. Using the semi‐online LC/MALDI‐MS system, chromatographic separation of polymers by the monolithic column with different eluents was studied. Separation of poly(methyl methacrylate) and Nylon 6/6 showed that the column functioned via size‐exclusion separation when tetrahydrofuran or HFIP eluent was used. On the other hand, the separation behavior of Nylon 11 indicated a reversed‐phase mode owing to the interaction of the polymer with the modified ODS group in the column. Using tetrahydrofuran/methanol (1:1, v/v) as the eluent, the LC/MALDI‐MS spectra of poly(lactic acid), which contains both linear and cyclic polymer structures, showed that the column could separate the hydrophobic cyclic polymer and elute it out relatively slowly. The monolithic column functions basically via size‐exclusion separation; the reversed‐phase separation by interaction with the ODS functions may have less influence on column separation. The semi‐online monolithic capillary LC/MALDI‐MS method we have developed should provide a means of effectively analyzing synthetic polymers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enthalpy assisted size exclusion chromatography. Part 2. Adsorption retention mechanism

A novel high performance liquid chromatographic method for separation of synthetic polymers has been tested. It involves combination of the enthalpic and entropic retention mechanisms, resulting in increased selectivity of separation within a specific molar mass range. In this present case, the enthalpic retention mechanism is adsorption of macromolecules on a bare silica gel column packing. Under critical conditions of enthalpic interactions, homopolymers are known to elute irrespective of their molar mass. However, in the vicinity of critical conditions, a situation can be identified when retention volumes (V(R)) rapidly decrease with increasing molar mass. Typically, this happens for polymer species close to or above their exclusion limit observed with the same column in the absence of enthalpic interactions between macromolecules and packing, that is near "ideal SEC" conditions. The dependence of polymer retention volume on molar mass closely resembles size exclusion conditions. However, the witnessed rate of change in V(R )with polymer molar mass is more pronounced, thus indicating increased selectivity of separation. This situation not only offers the benefit of more selective separation according to molar mass but efficient discrimination of macromolecules possessing different nature and interactivity with the column packing can be accomplished as well.     

Role of adsorption in liquid chromatography of macromolecules and potential of liquid chromatography in assessing adsorption of macromolecules onto solid surfaces

Many liquid chromatographic (LC) separations of macromolecules are influenced or directly based on adsorption of solutes on column packing. In the case of well known size exclusion chromatography (SEC), adsorption effects are usually unwanted and therefore suppressed. Still they appear in many SEC systems and may badly affect precision of results obtained. In other LC methods applicable to high polymers, adsorption is deliberately combined with exclusion. The aim is to discriminate complex polymer systems which exhibit more than one single distribution of their molecular characteristics. The main goals of such combinations include either a controlled increase or a full suppression of separation selectivity according to one molecular characteristics. Most important so far known exclusion-adsorption compensation methods allowing to suppress dependence of LC retention volumes on polymer molar mass are reviewed. The discussion is accomplished with a presentation of newly developed full adsorption - desorption (FAD) method which can be combined with various LC procedures. A very useful combination represents the on-line FAD/SEC procedure which enables also to study adsorption and desorption phenomena in the systems solid surface - solvent - macromolecules.     

Adsorption and desorption of macromolecules on solid surfaces studied by on-line size exclusion chromatography 2. Preferential adsorption and exchange processes

Preferential and exchange adsorption of polymers differing in molar mass and/or chemical nature under dynamic conditions were investigated using on-line size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). The sample investigated dissolved in an appropriate solvent was injected into a small adsorption–desorption column packed with nonporous silica. A nonadsorbed or desorbed fraction of the polymer was directed into an SEC column for determination of both the amount and the molecular characteristics. This approach is in many aspects superior to other techniques for studies of polymer adsorption onto solid surfaces due to its low sample and time consumption. At a low degree of surface coverage, adsorption and desorption of macromolecules were rapid and were affected by the rate of supply of macromolecules to the adsorbent surface. The exchange between macromolecules at the stage of surface saturation was found to depend on the mean molar masses of preadsorbed and displacing polymer species and possibly also on the chain flexibility of the macromolecules. It was shown that the preferential adsorption driven by the chain-length difference upon saturation of the adsorbent surface was more noticeable if the preadsorbed macromolecules were smaller. Received: 7 April 1999 Accepted in revised form: 21 July 1999     

Reconcentration of diluted polymer solutions by full adsorption/desorption procedure: II. Desorption of macromolecules by a narrow pulse of displacer

Diluted polymer solutions can be effectively reconcentrated applying full adsorption/desorption processes. Macromolecules from diluted solutions are quantitatively retained within a bed of appropriate adsorbent. Next, the polymer is released by a high‐strength desorbing liquid that is introduced into the sorbent bed as a narrow pulse. To evaluate the above reconcentration procedure, medium‐polarity polymers, mainly poly(methyl methacrylate)s of various molar mass distributions were chosen as model species. Nonporous silica was used as an adsorbent, toluene and chloroform as adsorbing liquids, and tetrahydrofuran as a desorbing liquid in an HPLC‐like apparatus. The concentration profiles of both the desorbing liquid pulse and desorbed polymer were monitored with the usual LC detectors. On‐line size exclusion chromatography was employed in selected cases to determine molar mass and molar mass distribution of desorbed macromolecules. The effect of some experimental parameters on the reconcentration efficiency was elucidated, viz. the nature of the sample solvent‐adsorbing liquid, flow rate of desorbing liquid, molar mass, molar mass distribution, and nature of reconcentrated polymer, as well as relations among the amount of the polymer to be reconcentrated and the volume of the desorbing liquid pulse. It is shown that very high reconcentration factors can be readily obtained by the full adsorption–desorption procedure if the experimental conditions are carefully optimized. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 267–275, 1999     

Transfer-volume effects in two-dimensional chromatography: adsorption-phenomena in second-dimension size-exclusion chromatography

Gradient-elution LC × LC is a valuable technique for the characterization of complex biological samples as well as for synthetic polymers. Breakthrough and viscous fingering may yield misleading information on the sample characteristics or deteriorate separation. In LC × SEC another phenomenon may jeopardize the separation. If the analytes adsorb on the SEC column under the injection-plug conditions, peak splitting may occur. In LC × LC the effluent from the first column is the sample solvent for the analytes injected into the second dimension. If a gradient-elution LC × SEC setup is used (i.e. if reversed-phase gradient-elution LC is coupled to organic SEC and if normal-phase gradient-elution LC is coupled to SEC with a polar solvent), the percentage of weak solvent may be significant, especially at short analysis times. In this case adsorption in the first-dimension-effluent zone on the second-dimension SEC column can become an issue and two peaks--the first eluting in size-exclusion mode and the second undergoing adsorption--can be obtained. The work presented in this paper documents peak splitting in LC × SEC of polymers. The adsorption of the polymer on the size-exclusion column was proven in one-dimensional isocratic runs. The observed effects were modeled and visualized through simulation. Studies on the influence of the transfer volume were carried out. Keeping the transfer volume as small as possible helped to minimize peak splitting due to adsorption.     

Strategies in two‐dimensional liquid chromatographic separation of complex polymer systems

Complex synthetic polymer systems as for example copolymers exhibit distributions in at least two of the three basic molecular characteristics which are molar mass, chemical structure/composition and molecular architecture. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) separates macromolecules according to their size in solution which simultaneously depends on all molecular characteristics. Therefore, multi‐dimensional liquid chromatographic techniques are to be applied to independently assess all different distributions present in the sample. So far, two‐dimensional separations have been attempted. In the first dimension separation column, selected liquid chromatographic mechanisms are intentionally combined to suppress effects of all but one molecular characteristic. Consequently, polymer species are separated exclusively or at least predominantly according to one single parameter. In the second dimension separation column, macromolecules are separated according to another molecular characteristic. In this contribution the methods are briefly reviewed in which effect of polymer molar mass on polymer retention is suppressed. The resulting ”one parameter separation systems” can be on‐line or off‐line connected to another separation system such as SEC to provide more detailed characterization of complex polymers. Besides, selected procedures for the re‐concentration of diluted polymer solutions are concisely treated. These may be utilized for increasing the concentration of sample(s) leaving the first dimension separation column. Eventually, some arrangements for controlled sample re‐introduction into the second dimension separation column are outlined.     

Evaluation of liquid chromatography column retentivity using macromolecular probes. III. Partition properties of C18 phases traced by polymers

Application of polymeric probes was proposed for evaluation of partition properties of the high performance liquid chromatographic stationary phases. The approach was tested with selected silica gel C-18 column packings. Polystyrene (PS) and poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PnBMA) narrow molar mass standards of low polarity were applied to avoid adsorption of macromolecules on silanols and other polar groups present within column packings. Polar eluent components further reduced contingency of silanophilic interactions. The major eluent component was dimethylformamide (DMF), a thermodynamically poor solvent for polymer probes, which strongly promoted enthalpic partition of macromolecules in favor of the C18 bonded phase. Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and diethyl malonate (DEM) were also tested as the partition promoting eluent components. With polystyrenes, MEK was rather inefficient as a partition promoter while DEM was similarly active as DMF. A thermodynamically good solvent for polymer probes, viz. tetrahydrofuran (THF) was added to eluent to reduce and control the extent of partition. The differences in elution behavior of column tested indicate their unlike partition properties.     

Liquid chromatography of macromolecules at the point of exclusion — Adsorption transition. Principle,experimental procedures and queries concerning feasibility of method

Liquid Chromatography of macromolecules at the Point of Exclusion-Adsorption Transition (LC PEAT) called also liquid chromatography under critical conditions of adsorption or liquid chromatography at the critical point of adsorption is a new and rapidly developing technique that - in combination with some other LC separation procedures - allows separation and molecular characterization of many complex polymer systems as polymer blends, interpolymers or functionalized oligomers. In this critical discussion review, the principles of LC PEAT are briefly elucidated and the nomenclature of some terms connected with the technique is proposed. The most important experimental procedures as eluent and column packing selection are described in detail. The weakpoints of method are discussed in terms of the sensitivity of results towards minute eluent composition, temperature and pressure changes, as well as towards both chemical and physical structure of separated macromolecules and column packing used. The peak broadening, skewing and splitting that often accompany the LC PEAT experiments are also outlined. Above - mentioned, so far mostly overlooked problems may lead to limited repeatability of results and to low sample recovery, especially at higher polymer molar mass values, thus causing queries concerning the broader applicability and experimental feasibility of method, on the other hand these problems can also be regarded as a challenge to both theoreticians and experimentalists who can substantially contribute to the improvement of this powerful method - and thus to its widespread application.