Densimeter detector in gel permeation chromatography of copolymers

Abstract

Abstract A commercially available densimeter with a vibrating stainless steel tube was used as a detector in the GPC analysis of styrene/methyl methacrylate copolymers under normal GPC operational conditions. The densimeter was thermostated to ±0.001°C and sample injection concentrations were 4.0 mg/mL. The copolymer samples were polydisperse in molecular weight but uniform in composition. A refractive index detector and the densimeter detector produced comparable estimates of the parameters of the molecular weight distributions. The densimeter is less sensitive to the effects of variations in copolymer composition than differential refractive index or ultraviolet detectors. The only serious drawback to the densimeter is a relative lack of sensitivity. Variations in composition of styrene/methyl methacrylate copolymers over a fairly wide range have no signficant effect on the relation between gel permeation chromatographic elution volume and copolymer molecular weight. In general, however, conventional means of summarizing these data are not applicable to compositionally heterogeneous mixtures. Instrumental and data‐handling solutions to this problem are discussed.