title: Determination of short-chain branching content in polyethylene by pyrolysis comprehensive multidimensional gas chromatography using low thermal mass column technology.
abstract: A research effort was undertaken to utilize the pyrolysis process to create fragments of polyethylene that could be indicative of branching, and allow quantitiation of said short-chain branches by pyrolysis comprehensive 2-D GC (Py-GC x GC). Several strategies for sample introduction and pyrolysis such as the in-column pyrolysis device and the programmed temperature vaporizer (PTV) were studied. The chromatographic separations were executed using low-thermal mass (LTM) comprehensive 2-D GC (GC x GC). A series of polyethylene-co-hexene samples were analyzed and a linear correlation of 1-hexene content with branching peak ratio was found. Correlation coefficients were determined as 0.97 for the measurements performed.
authors.affiliation: Dow Deutschland GmbH, Analytical Sciences, Rheinmuenster, Germany.
authors.forename: Patric
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eckerle
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pursch
authors.forename: Hernan J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Cortes
authors.forename: Kefu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Winniford
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luong