Chromatographic characterisation of poly (vinyl alcohol)

Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVOH), the partially hydrolysed form of poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc), is a complex multicomponent polymer exhibiting a number of broad molecular property distributions and is therefore somewhat difficult to characterise by analytical techniques. Coupled column chromatography (CCC) is a technique whereby such a complex polymer may be characterised by cross-fractionation from one separation method to another and may be performed using size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and reversed phase chromatography (RPC) to produce a molecular size distribution superimposed onto a compositional vinyl acetate (VAc) distribution. [Continues.]