Analysis of carboxy‐terminated polybutadienes by GPC: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

The use of gel permeation chromatography (GPC) for the rapid determination of molecular weight distributions of carboxy‐terminated polybutadienes is demonstrated. Whole polymer samples and fractions prepared by elution fractionation were characterized by GPC and viscosity measurements with two different solvents for each method. Variable functionality (COOH group) dependence of the polystyrene gel columns is shown. Thus there is a need to pretest the columns for COOH absorption before use with materials containing carboxylic acid. Effects of sample size and also of carboxy termination as compared with hydrogen termination are discussed. Correlations between tetrahydrofuran and CHCl₃ chromatograms are given. As a first approximation the Q factor of 16 is indicated for molecular weight determination from a standard polystyrene calibration in both tetrahydrofuran and CHCl₃.