WP1004: Absolute characterization of polymers with light scattering and UHP-SEC

UHP-SEC offers multiple benefits for synthetic polymer characterization. However, its rapid, low-volume separation is more sensitive to column calibration errors and drift than traditional HP-SEC. Additionally, only a small selection of column chemistries is available for eliminating non-ideal sample-column interactions; when these non-idealities do occur, they invalidate column calibration by standards that are not chemically identical to the samples of interest. Therefore it is essential to combine UHP-SEC with online, low-volume multi-angle light scattering instrumentation (µSEC-MALS) for determining the molecular weight and size of polymers, independently of retention time. µSEC-MALS is necessary for UHP-SEC characterization of branched polymers, rod-like polymers and co-polymers, all of which have no appropriate column calibration standards.