Abstract
The development of macromolecular engineering and the need for renewable and sustainable polymer sources make polymeric materials progressively more sophisticated but also increasingly complex to characterize. Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC or GPC) has a monopoly in the separation and characterization of polymers, but it faces a number of proven, though regularly ignored, limitations for the characterization of a number of complex samples such as polyelectrolytes and polysaccharides. Free solution capillary electrophoresis (CE), or capillary zone electrophoresis, allows usually more robust separations than SEC due to the absence of a stationary phase. It is, for example, not necessary to filter the samples for analysis with CE. CE is mostly limited to polymers that are charged or can be charged, but in the case of polyelectrolytes it has similarities with liquid chromatography in the critical conditions: it does not separate a charged homopolymer by molar mass. It can thus characterize the topology of a branched polymer, such as poly(acrylic acid), or the purity or composition of copolymers, either natural ones such as pectin, chitosan, and gellan gum or synthetic ones.
Highlights
Introduction to CE and Limitations ofSizeExclusion Chromatography (SEC/GPC)Free solution capillary electrophoresis (CE), or capillary zone electrophoresis, is a robust polymer separation method
CE offers an alternative and the objective of this review is to present and discuss the potential of CE for synthetic polymers and polysaccharides
Critical conditions refer to the conditions sought in liquid chromatography (LC) in which a homopolymer is not separated by molar mass
Summary
NMR spectroscopy used as offline detection after CE migration allowed for the identification of a number of carboxylated compounds in the final products This CE method is ideally suited for the separation of mono- and disaccharides in complex matrices. The shortest oligoAAs were shown to contain 50% of unreacted RAFT agent, while the direct infusion in ESI-MS estimated that the sample contained only 2% of unreacted RAFT agent This large discrepancy is due to the known issue of the bias of the ionization towards low degrees of polymerization and hydrophilic species in MS analysis [49]. CE was shown to be a relevant and fast method
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
