Polyolefin Analysis by Multidimensional Liquid Chromatography

The synthesis and characterization of polyolefins continues to be one of the most important areas for academic and industrial research considering the fact that polyolefins make about 60 % of the total polymer market. One consequence of the development of new “tailor-made” polyolefins is the need for new and improved analytical techniques for the analysis of polyolefins with respect to molar mass, molecular topology and chemical composition distribution. Very frequently, polyolefins exhibit multiple distributions, e.g. long chain branching and molar mass distribution in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) or chemical composition distribution and molar mass distribution in linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), copolymers and polymer blends.