Desorption behavior of polystyrene from porous glass beads; Studied by continuous elution method

A new analytical method for studying polymer adsorption/desorption, which is termed the ''continuous elution method'', has been developed. In this method, preadsorbed adsorbent powders are packed into a small column, solvent elution is performed and the concentration of polymer desorbed from the adsorbent surface is measured. By this method, the adsorption/desorption behavior of polystyrene on/from the surface of controlled-pore glass (CPG-10) has been investigated over a wide range of these samples. It is revealed that the continuous elution method provides new information about the polymer adsorption layer, and the polymer layer, whose radius of gyration in the solution is roughly equal to the pore size of the adsorbent, takes up a special flattened conformation affected by the narrow pore surface, and shows a specific broad profile of the desorption elution curve.