Study of compositional distribution in a styrene–methyl acrylate copolymer by means of density‐gradient centrifugation

Abstract

SynopsisSeveral samples of a copolymer were examined by means of equilibrium centrifugation in a density gradient. The results for the samples without compositional distribution (homogeneous polymers) were used to determine the relation between the chemical composition and the distance from the center of rotation. For one of the homogeneous polymers a quantitative analysis of the schlieren curve w8s made in order to show the kind of accuracy that can be achieved. For the inhomogeneous polymer it was found that the schlieren curve could, in principle, be described quantitatively by the assumption that fluctuations in composition are independent of fluctuations in molecular weight, but on this basis the average square of the fluctuations in composition is more than four times smaller than the value derived from chromatographic data. A more satisfactory explanation of the experimental results is provided by assuminga linear correlation between average molecular weight and composition, but it is not claimed that this is necessarily the only model that explains the data.