COMPUTER-SIMULATION STUDY OF MULTIDETECTOR SIZE-EXCLUSION CHROMATOGRAPHY OF BRANCHED MOLECULAR-MASS DISTRIBUTIONS

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) provides a rapid method for determining molecular mass distributions relative to standard calibration materials. If light-scattering and viscosity detectors are used independent measurements of molecular mass and size can be obtained directly, and these can be used to estimate the distribution of branching across the molecular mass distribution. In order to study the effect of branching on the detector signals and the calculated results a computer simulation of the multiple detector SEC analysis of randomly branched polymers was developed. The model is described and results for different amounts of branching, different extents of reaction, and different models of the hydrodynamic size are discussed.