Determination of ultrahigh molar mass of polyelectrolytes by Taylor dispersion analysis.

Taylor dispersion analysis (TDA) was successfully applied to obtain broadly distributed, ultrahigh molar masses of industrial anionic polyacrylamides (IPAMs) up to 25 × 10 g/mol, far beyond the limits of Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) (about 7.3 × 10 g/mol for anionic polyacrylamides standards (APAM)). Two protocols of TDA differing in capillary surface and rinsing procedure were employed: (i) bare fused silica capillaries under intensive between-run rinsing with 1 M NaOH, and (ii) fused silica capillaries coated with polyelectrolyte multilayers composed of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride polycation and sodium polystyrenesulfonate polyanion under simple rinsing with background electrolyte.

Characterization of ultrahigh molar mass polyelectrolytes by capillary electrophoresis.

High to ultrahigh molar mass (above 1 million g/mol) anionic poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylamide)s are widely used industrial polymers for water treatment and oil drilling. Their properties are strongly related to their charge density and molar mass distributions. However, due to inherent separation limits of SEC with currently available columns (< 5 ×10 g/mol) and possible occurrence of chain breakage, and/or adsorption leading to abnormal elution, characterization of unusually high molar masses polyelectrolytes is challenging.