Tosoh EcoSEC 8320 GPC System

Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is a type of size exclusion chromatography whereby a polymer sample is fractionated via differences in hydrodynamic volume. Since this volume is directly related to the molar mass of the polymer, GPC is widely used to characterize polymer molar mass distribution.

The sample is dissolved in an appropriate solvent (mobile phase or eluent) and is passed through a column packed with porous “gel” beads (stationary phase) where the separation process occurs. The size of each polymer chain (i.e. its molecular weight) will determine how much it interacts with the pores on the beads. Larger polymer chains interact less with the gel than smaller ones and thus elute fastest. Therefore a graph is produced based on elution (or retention) time versus the signal from a specific detector(s) located downstream from the column.

The EcoSEC 8320 is equipped with a dual-flow refractive index detector which significantly improves baseline stability and reduces drift. A UV detector is also included for UV visible polymers and can be used in tandem with the RI detector for copolymer compositional analysis. The installed columns have a range of 500 – 10⁷ Da. Choice of eluent must be discussed with staff beforehand.