Separation of parent homopolymers from diblock copolymers by liquid chromatography under limiting conditions desorption, 1 - Principle of the method

A novel group of liquid chromatographic methods was developed, namely liquid chromatography under limiting conditions of enthalpic interactions (LC LC). LC LC utilizes the difference in the elution rates of the slow, pore permeating small solvent molecules and the fast traveling pore excluded macromolecules. The appropriately chosen small molecules create a barrier, which selectively promotes enthalpic interactions of one kind of polymer chains within the chromatographic system and thus blocks their fast elution. The non-interacting polymer chains elute rapidly. Two different barriers enable simultaneous separation of both parent homopolymers from a diblock copolymer.