Estimation of polymer fractionation efficiency by comparison of theoretical models and experimental molecular mass distribution

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper the efficiency of a new modified column fractionation method was presented through the comparison of theoretical models and experimentally obtained molecular mass distribution. Five theoretical functions were used for fitting the experimental data: log‐normal, Tung, Schulz, polynomial, and Flory distribution function. The curve fittings were estimated by the mean square deviation. The mean square deviations in all the theoretical models were of the same order. The least values of mean square deviation and consequentely the best fitting of the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) distribution curve, which deals as a true distribution of the applied polymer sample, were achieved with polynomial and Flory model. These theoretical models were further chosen as a reference distribution function. The experimental fractionation data in two quite different solvent pairs were afterwards fitted to the chosen referent models. Fractionation data of the both applied solvent pairs have been in close agreement with Flory and polynomial model. This confirms the high efficiency of the proposed fractionation method.