Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography for the separation of protonated and deuterated polystyrene

Abstract

Liquid chromatography at critical conditions (LCCC) has been shown to be a powerful method for the separation of complex polymers regarding chemical composition, functionality, or molecular topology. LCCC has never been used, however, to separate polymers according to the degree of deuteration. This is a very challenging task since polymers shall be separated that are identical regarding molar mass, endgroups and chemical composition. In the present work, critical conditions were established in such a way that one component of a complex mixture elutes at critical conditions, whereas the other component shows size exclusion chromatography (SEC) behaviour. Blends of protonated (h) and deuterated (d) polystyrene (PS) were separated by LCCC at critical conditions of both h-PS and d-PS. Depending on the molar masses of the blend components, baseline separation could be achieved. In order to improve the separation further, comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography was carried out on a number of model blends. In the first dimension LCCC was used, which separated the blends according to isotopic effects whereas in the second dimension the separation took place with respect to hydrodynamic volume. In order to further improve the separation of a number of blends a separation protocol was used where one component shows SEC conditions whereas the other component shows liquid adsorption chromatography (LAC) conditions. This separation protocol was achieved by varying the column temperature.