Erwin R. Kaal

The pyrolysis fragments are first refocused on the top of the GC column, then separated and finally detected by the MS. At the end of the GC run the SEC flow is resumed again and the entire process is repeated.

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC) are commonly used to characterize copolymers. SEC is a powerful method to determine the molecular-weight distribution of polymers whereas Py-GC provides valuable information on their chemical composition. The combination of these two techniques could yield combined size and composition information for copolymers or polymer mixtures. A fully automated system was constructed to perform these two-dimensional (2D) characterizations. Several examples of the use of this new technique to comprehensively characterize polymers are described.