Separation Mechanism of Copolymers from Styrene and Methyl Methacrylate According to Composition by Liquid Adsorption Chromatography

Abstract

Abstract Silica gel and a mixture of chloroform and ethanol were used as the stationary and the mobile phases, respectively. At the isocratic elution mode, the copolymers tended to adsorb on the column with increasing MMA content in the copolymers, with increasing column temperature, and with decreasing ethanol content in the mobile phase. The copolymers appeared always at the position proportional to the interstitial volume in the column, otherwise they adsorbed on the column. The equilibrium distribution of the copolymers between the mobile phase and the stationary phase cannot be considered in this system. Hydrogen bonding of carbonyl groups in MMA units of the copolymers to silanol groups on the surface of silica gel was considered to be the main interaction between the copolymers and the adsorbent. The hydrogen bonding increases with increasing the number of carbonyl groups per unit surface of copolymer coil in solution and with increasing free silanol groups on the silica surface. Ethanol in the stationary phase controls the content of the free silanol groups on the surface and is controlled by the content of ethanol in the mobile phase in addition to column temperature. This phenomena can be explained by introducing the term of the adsorption energy of a copolymer segment with the silica surface. The adsorption energy is proportional to the strength of the hydrogen bonding. Above the critical adsorption energy which is defined to be equal to the dissolution energy of the copolymer to the mobile pahse, the copolymers adsorb on the surface of silica gel and the desorption of the copolymers advances when the adsorption energy approaches to the critical adsorption energy. No adsorption of the copolymers is possible when the adsorption energy is equal or below the critical adsorption energy.