Undergraduate experiments analyze polyethylene glycol using gas and liquid chromatography, highlighting polymer characterization concepts.
Two variations of chromatography-based undergraduate analytical chemistry laboratory experiments for the characterization of synthetic polymers are presented, one employing gas chromatography and one employing liquid chromatography. Both experiments separate polydisperse polyethylene glycol (PEG) into their oligomer components to obtain a complete analysis of the mixture composition. The mole fraction distribution of the components is fitted to a Gaussian distribution function and the average molecular weight of the polydisperse PEG samples is obtained. In addition to learning instrument skills, the experiments reinforce basic concepts of the statistical analysis of experimental data and expose students to concepts relevant to the subject area of polymers. The latter was the main motivation to develop these experiments for the undergraduate laboratory curriculum in response to the 2015 American Chemical Society guidelines and evaluation procedures for Bachelor’s degree programs that call for specific coverage of content areas related to large-scale/complex materials including synthetic polymers.
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Zagari et al. (2019) studied this question.
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