Book Description

"The field of polymer analysis features many challenges. In general, there is a need for novel or improved analytical methods for contemporary industrial copolymers. Such polymers are often extremely complex, featuring distributions in molar mass, chemical composition, sequence, etc. In this work various aspects of copolymer analysis were explored, to advance the field to better meet current industrial needs. Two main aspects of copolymer analysis were investigated, namely sequence determination and heterogeneity analysis as a function of molar mass. The sequence analysis of copolymers gives insight in the order of monomers in the polymer backbone. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography (Py-GC) was explored as a method for the analysis of acrylate copolymers. It was found that the method was well applicable to the sequencing of acrylate copolymers, even being capable of sequencing ternary copolymers. The sequencing of styrene-acrylate copolymers was also investigated and proved to be more challenging, requiring an external calibration approach to derive sequence information. For the heterogeneity analysis of copolymers various hyphenations of liquid chromatography and pyrolysis-based analysis methods were developed. A method for Py-GC hyphenation to size-exclusion chromatography was developed, this method provided detailed information on the polymer’s chemical nature as a function of molar mass. The method required relatively long analysis time however, therefore the GC separation was omitted in a later study yielding a size-exclusion chromatography-pyrolysis-mass spectrometry hyphenation. This method yielded greatly reduced analysis times while delivering comparable chemical information. Overall, the research covered in this work should accelerate the development of novel (sustainable) polymers."--