Calibration of instrumental spreading for GPC

Abstract

AbstractThe proper use of the method for correcting instrumental spreading in GPC requires a precise calibration of the spreading characteristics of the instrument. Heretofore, such a calibration could be obtained only through the tedious reverse‐flow experiments. A more rapid method of calibrating instrumental spreading is presented in this work. This method uses the leading halves of the chromatograms of several standard polystyrene samples. These chromatograms are normally used in the calibration of molecular weight; additional experimental steps are therefore not required. The calculation of the instrumental spreading characteristics from these chromatograms is also relatively simple. The instrumental spreading characteristics were found to depend on the elution volume but not on the nature of the polymer. Thus, calibration results from using polystyrene standards can be used to treat chromatograms for other polymers. For the present GPC instrument, the spreading was found to reach a maximum at an elution volume near 400,000 in polystyrene molecular weight. The existence of this maximum is in agreement with observations made by other investigators and is and indication that diffusion in the mobile phase is not an important contribution to instrumental spreading. The problem of skewing or tailing is discussed. Indication of skewing was observed for one of the higher molecular weight polystyrene samples but the extent of skewing was not severe at the present flow rate of 2 ml/min.