Gel permeation chromatographic (GPC) determination of molecular weight distribution (MWD) of poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS) must be carried out at high temperatures above at least 200°C because of its insolubility in the GPC carrier solvent below this temperature. However, conventional GPC detectors such as a differential refractometer (RI) or an ultraviolet/visible light (UV/Vis) absorption detector often did not function properly at such high temperatures. To avoid this difficulty, C.J. Stacy proposed use of a viscometric detector to determine the concentration c of each fraction eluting at the elution volume Ve. The Stacy method is not extremely accurate in determining c especially of low M (or large Ve) fractions because of the low sensitivity of ηsp to M in this region. The authors modified GPC apparatus for high temperature operation and applied it to determine MWD of several commercial PPS samples. They compared the results of their modified GPC-UV/Vis method with those of the Stacy GPC-viscometric detector method. The purpose of this note is to report these results.
