Molecular-weight fractionation of polystyrene by zone-melting chromatography.
Polystyrene can be fractionated by zone-melting chromatography on a solid column of durene. The polymer solute moves in the same direction as the heated zone. The higher the molecular weight of the polymer the slower it moves. Experiments with model mixtures of monodisperse polystyrenes of average molecular weight 6 x 10(2)-2 x 10(5) indicate that a polymer fraction can be separated in 90% purity from fractions with molecular weights higher or lower by one order of magnitude. Polystyrene samples of various molecular weight distributions, after processing on durene columns, gave several fractions having significantly narrower dispersions than that of the starting polymer, in terms of gel-permeation chromatography.
Maeda
S
S
Department of Organic Synthesis, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812, Japan.
Kobayashi
H
H
Ueno
K
K