Use of gel-permeation chromatography in the determination of the composition of two-polymer mixtures

The possibility of evaluating with acceptable accuracy the composition of a two-polymer mixture which is well separated by GPC, was studied by using mixtures of high molecular weight polybutadiene (M?_w = 4.5 × 10⁵) and low molecular weight polyiso-butylene (M?_n in the range of 10³). It was concluded that a satisfactory evaluation of the composition of a polymer mixture can be achieved, provided that the variations of the refractive index with the molecular weight are taken into account for the low molecular weight polymer (the polyisobutylene).