Size exclusion chromatography of small molecules

SEC has long been recognized as a major technique for the characterization of materials of high molecular mass, i.e., polymers. The application to small molecules (molecular mass ≤ 1000) has received much less attention. One of the first applications of SEC in the authors’ laboratory was the separation of dimer acid (MW c.500) from a petroleum fuel fraction in 1968, and there has been a constant succession of subsequent analytical applications as well as the more conventional projects on polymer characterization.