Efficacy of precipitation in non-solvents for the recovery of pure polymers from solution

Tests have been performed using solutions of poly(methyl methacrylate) with methanol, hexane and diethyl ether as precipitants; they involved size exclusion chromatography, the use of polymer with C-14-labelled end-groups and the use of C-14-labelled benzoyl peroxide as a contaminant in the polymer. Methanol is the most satisfactory of the precipitants for the removal of the contaminant, but hexane leads to the best recovery of those polymer molecules which are comparatively small. Similar studies with polystyrene showed that methanol is preferable to hexane not only for the removal of the contaminant but also for recovery of small polymer molecules. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd