Peter Kilz | Authors

One of the major problems with plastics is recycling. Only a few materials can be recycled and the acceptance of recyclates is sometimes low. GPC/SEC can be applied to investigate the quality of materials containing recycled portions.

Membranes play an important role in living species as well as in technical processes, including in human care (for example, in kidney treatment). This instalment of Tips & Tricks discusses gel permeation chromatography/size-exclusion chromatography (GPC/SEC) for membrane analysis.

Gel permeation/size-exclusion chromatography (GPC/SEC) is the standard method for separating samples by molecular size and determining molar mass distributions. However, GPC/SEC instruments can also be used to investigate porous materials and to learn more about pore size distributions, as a powerful alternative to nitrogen gas (N2) adsorption or mercury (Hg) intrusion porosimetry.