This review covers the time period of about December 1975 to November 1977. Since we depend on abstracting services in some cases, there is some time overlap with the period covered by the last review (73). The literature surveyed for this review included major analytical, chromatography, and polymer journals, as well as various abstracting services. We've included literature on size separation from soft gels ("gel filtration"), semi-rigid gels ("GPC"), and porous, inorganic column packings ("rigid gels"). And we've reviewed size separations involving small molecules as well as work restricted to macromolecules. We continue to use the common abbreviation, GPC, for gel permeation chromatography applications involving all the above areas. The more definitive "steric exclusion chromatography" is, however, still preferred nomenclature.
GENERAL REVIEWSA number of books published during this period included one or more sections on theory and use of steric exclusion chromatography (28,55,152,174,176). Several review articles also included general GPC information. Abbott (1) and Miller (129) discussed elementary operating principles and usefullness for polymer analyses. Krauss and Krauss reviewed theory and practice of both thin layer and column GPC (105). Current status of aqueous GPC was reviewed by Cooper and