THE FRACTIONATION OF POLYTHENE

Abstract

An apparatus is described for fractionating large quantities (400 g) of polythene into five roughly equal fractions using a fractional precipitation technique. Application of this method of fractionation to a linear polythene has shown that the width of the molecular-weight distribution of the successive fractions decreases as the fractionation proceeds. Consequently, the initial high-molecular-weight fractions require refractionation to produce equally narrow distributions in them as are found in later fractions. Good agreement is obtained with the experimentally determined values of the number-average and weight-average molecular weight for the parent polymer when the measured values of M_n and M_w for each fraction are used to calculate the values for the parent. The differential molecular-weight distribution function of the parent polymer was calculated on a Bendix G-15 computer from the data for the fractions by using the weight, number-average and weight-average molecular weight, measured for each fraction in conjunction with an assumed log-normal or negative binomial molecular-weight distribution function in each fraction.