Gel permeation chromatography of polyoxymethylene

摘要

AbstractGel permeation chromatography of polyoxymethylene has been studied using N,N‐dimethylformamide as the solvent. Polyoxymethylene samples used here are a copolymer of tetraoxane with 1,3‐dioxolane and a commercial polyoxymethylene whose molecular weight distributions are moderately broad. Their intrinsic viscosities η range from 1.4 to 2.8 dl/g. Factors affecting chromatograms are discussed, and the operating conditions were determined by using the analytical scale GPC. On the basis of these operating conditions, the molecular weight fractionation of polyoxymethylene was carried out by using the preparative scale GPC. It was found that polyoxymethylene can be effectively fractionated to give seven to ten fractions each of them containing the fractionated polymer ranging in weight from 0.2 to 8 mg when 40 mg polymer sample was used for a run of the measurement. The fractionated polymers were also found to have a narrow molecular weight distribution within a single peak, and theirMw/Mnvalues decrease with increasing molecular we