Visualization of Thermo‐Oxidative Degradation of Polyolefins in Solution Using HT‐SEC and HT‐AF4‐MALS

The molar mass distributions of high‐molar‐mass PE and PP were characterized using HT‐AF4 and HT‐SEC in combination with IR and MALS detection. Calculated molar mass distributions, average molar masses and radii of gyration were compared. It was found that HT‐AF4 can detect the real extent of thermo‐oxidative degradation during dissolution. HT‐SEC is affected by shear and thermo‐oxidative degradation while in HT‐AF4 no shear stress exists. As a consequence, the molar mass averages obtained from HT‐SEC are pronouncedly lower as obtained from HT‐AF4. In addition, branched polyolefins cannot be correctly characterized by SEC‐MALS due to abnormal co‐elution effects. HT‐AF4 is therefore the method of choice for studying the thermo‐oxidative degradation of macromolecules with high molar masses. magnified image