| Abstract: | Various commercially available stationary phases of gel permeation chromatography (GPC) were tested to determine their effectiveness in aqueous exclusion chromatography. It was found that controlled pore glass (GPG) is the most suitable material for the separation of polyacrylamides and poly(acry1amide-co-sodium acrylate), dextrans, and poly(sodium styrene–sulfonates) in 0.1M aqueous Na2S04 solutions of ionic strength 0.3. A calibration curve was established by using broad molecular weight distribution polyacrylamide standards in a trial and error procedure. To avoid artificial oscillations on the evaluated distribution curves a cubic B-spline representation of the calibration curve was used instead of the conventional polynomials. By applying this system the solution instability of polyacrylamides was observed by GPC and is discussed because of its general importance to the applicability of indirect molecular weight determination methods for polyacrylamides. The effectiveness of aqueous GPC was demonstrated in an evaluation of thermal degradation measurements of polyacrylamides. Finally, the feasibility of universal calibration of aqueous GPC by means of poly(sodium styrene–sulfonates) was investigated. It is apparent that in spite of some problems concerning adsorption of the polymer universal calibration is a successful tool for calibrating aqueous GPC. |
