Conclusions and Future Trends

Abstract

More than half a century has passed after the introduction of size exclusion chromatography. Still this ‘mature’ method of polymer fractionation is an important topic of research in Analytical Polymer Science. Over the last 20 years a tremendous growth in SEC capabilities has been observed due to the fact that (1) novel and more efficient stationary phases have been developed and (2) SEC has become a part of multi-detector systems where concentration detectors are coupled to detectors that are sensitive to molar mass and chemical composition. The last major achievements in this field are the direct coupling of SEC with FTIR and NMR spectroscopy as well as mass spectrometry. Most remarkably, such couplings are available now even in high-temperature liquid chromatography for the analysis of semicrystalline polyolefins.