"To Be or Not to Be" of a Polymer Nanogel-Unravelling the Relationship of Product Properties vs. Synthesis Conditions Governing the Radiation Crosslinking of Poly(acrylic acid) Using GPC/SEC-MALLS.

In this paper, a state-of-the-art multi-detection gel permeation chromatography/size exclusion chromatography (GPC/SEC) system including multi-angle laser light scattering (MALLS) is applied to monitor radiation-induced synthesis of internally crosslinked nanostructures from poly(acrylic acid) (PAA). The aim is to demonstrate that this modern tool yields a more detailed picture of reaction mechanism and product structure than the techniques used to date. The prevailing intramolecular crosslinking narrows the molecular weight distribution from M/M = 3.