(291e) Challenges and Limitations of SEC for the Characterization of Polymers

The establishment of structure–function relationships for a given material require the accurate characterization of the materials structural properties. In polymer science, size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) is among one of the most relied upon tools for characterization. I will present the investigation of the use of SEC for the characterization of structural parameters, composition, and purity of bottlebrush polymers and block copolymers. The investigation comes in three parts: the first section focuses on five independent structural parameters defined for a bottlebrush polymer. A Monte-Carlo simulation mimicking the bottlebrush synthesis was developed to better understand the precision of their synthesis dependent on the defined structural parameters. The second section provides a systematic investigation into the use of SEC for determining the composition and purity of di-block polymers. Third section considers the sensitivity of SEC to variations in processing of the raw data produced by the SEC system. Through this presentation we endeavor to raise awareness of the challenges associated with the SEC analysis and provide practical information to improve the rigor of polymer characterization. This will aid in the development of accurate structure–function relationships for any designed material in the future.