Advanced tools for molecular characterization of bio-based and biodegradable polymers.

Bio-based and biodegradable materials play a vital role in a sustainable and green economy. These materials must exhibit properties that are similar to or better than the properties of oil- or coal-based materials and require sophisticated synthesis technologies and detailed knowledge of structure-property correlations. For comprehensive molecular structure elucidation, advanced analytical methods, including coupled and hyphenated techniques that combine advanced fractionation and information-rich spectroscopic detectors, are an indispensable tool.

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography for the characterization of acrylate-modified hyaluronic acid.

Hyaluronic acid and its acrylate derivatives are important intermediates for various pharmaceutical, biomedical, and cosmetic applications due to their biocompatibility and viscoelasticity properties. However, these polymers are inherently difficult to characterize due to their significant heterogeneity regarding molar mass and chemical composition (degree of substitution, DS). The present study describes the development of a comprehensive online two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) approach to characterize hyaluronic acid and its acrylate derivatives (DS ranging from 0.

Separation of hydrophobically modified hyaluronic acid according to the degree of substitution by gradient elution high performance liquid chromatography.

Amphiphilic hyaluronic acid (HA), synthesised by modifying HA to varying extents with acrylate groups, was successfully separated according to degree of substitution (DS) using solvent gradient high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two HPLC methods based on the amphiphilic structure of the HA were developed. In the first approach, normal phase gradient HPLC was explored, and separation was based on the interactions of HA's polar hydroxyl groups with a polar cyano stationary phase.

Advanced analytical methods for the structure elucidation of polystyrene-b-poly(n-butyl acrylate) block copolymers prepared by reverse iodine transfer polymerisation.

Reverse iodine transfer polymerisation (RITP) is a living radical polymerisation technique that has shown to be feasible in synthesising segmented styrene-acrylate copolymers. Polymers synthesised via RITP are typically only described regarding their bulk properties using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and size exclusion chromatography. To fully understand the complex composition of the polymerisation products and the RITP reaction mechanism, however, it is necessary to use a combination of advanced analytical methods.