Theory of chromatography of ring-shaped block copolymers

Abstract A theory is developed for describing liquid chromatography of ring diblock and multiblock copolymers. The chromatographic behavior of ring block copolymers at different adsorption interactions is analyzed theoretically and compared with that of linear block copolymers; typical chromatograms are simulated by using the theory. In particular, it is shown that under the critical interaction condition for one block the chromatographic retention of a ring diblock copolymer is dependent of the length of the ‘critical’ block; this behavior differs qualitatively from that of a linear diblock copolymer. Ring copolymers are always more retained than linear ones, therefore such copolymers can be separated. Especially good separation of heterogeneous ring and linear block copolymers is predicted at near-critical interaction conditions. According to the theory, ring diblocks and multiblocks can be separated as well, if one component of a copolymer is adsorbing, while the other one is not adsorbing.