Analysis of Residual Vinyl Pyrrolidone Monomer in Polyvinylpyrrolidone with a Mixed Mode Separation, using a Fast Gel Permeation Chromatography Column

Abstract The technique of high throughput or fast gel permeation chromatography was used to separate and quantify residual vinyl pyrrolidone monomer present in polyvinyl pyrrolidone polymer (PVP) and in a copolymer of vinyl pyrrolidone and vinyl caprolactam [P(VP/VCL)]. The chromatography exploits both size-exclusion and adsorption modes of separation. This methodology offers a single step analysis for residual vinyl pyrrolidone monomer as compared to multi-step and time-consuming reverse-phase chromatography measurements, yielding similar results. Fast GPC and reverse-phase analyses are quantitatively compared and reported using both typical industrial and European Pharmacopeia methodologies for HPLC. The results of this study demonstrate that fast gel permeation chromatography presents a viable option to traditional reverse- phase chromatography in the quantitative analysis of residual vinyl pyrrolidone monomer.