| Abstract: | The mechanisms governing the broadening of experimental chromatograms for proteins and paucidisperse dextrans were studied on TSK-G2000SW and TSK-G3000SW columns. Within the conditions studied, the chromatogram variance for all solutes increased linearly with increasing effluent flow rate. As predicted by current theories of the kinetics of size exclusion chromatography, this flow rate dependence is caused mainly by slow mass transport of the solute within the stationary phase of the column. Restricted diffusion within the stationary phase was dependent upon the ratio of solute molecular size to column pore radius and was similar for both proteins and dextrans. In comparison with results for monodisperse proteins, the broader chromatograms produced by dextrans were due to sample polydispersity and not to differences in solute column spreading. Corrections for column spreading on these columns are small for the determination of integral properties of polymers but may be significant when molecular weight distributions are of interest. |
