Derivatization of some polymers with o-phthalaldehyde prior to high-performance size-exclusion chromatography

Abstract The well known OPA ( o -phthalaldehyde) derivatization commonly used in aqueous media has been modified on order to be able to carry out the reaction with various polymeric materials in tetrahydrofuran, a solvent very often used in size-exclusion chromatography. The modified OPA reaction leads to stable fluorescent derivatives of the investigated analytes. The derivatization procedure has three important advantages: (i) the selectivity of the analytical method is greatly improved since only compounds having a primary amino group are detected; (ii) the sensitivity is increased by at least two orders of magnitude compared to ultraviolet or refractive index detection; (iii) the chromatography is facilitated due to a conversion of the primary amino groups.