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Use Gel Permeation Column to analyze PEG

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:41 am
by colautti
Hi everybody,

Now we've got a polyethylene glycol sample with high polarity and about 4000 MW. The sample is liquid which looks like oil with about 27% water. Present we have not GFC column but some GPC columns and the task is very urgent. So I wonder if we could use GPC column to analyze such hydrophilic sample with high content of water? Will such kinds of sample harm the column?
And since I guess we can not use tetrahydrofuran to elute the hydrophilic sample, shall we use some high polarity solvents such as DMF? Or which kind of solvent is suitable?
Thank you if you can help me!

Re: Use Gel Permeation Column to analyze PEG

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:52 am
by tom jupille
My guess is that you won't hurt the column, but with a non-polar packing such as is used for GPC and a fairly polar (water-miscible) solvent, you have a good chance of seeing reversed-phase retention, which would skew the result.

Re: Use Gel Permeation Column to analyze PEG

Posted: Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:23 am
by Gerhard Kratz
I agree with Tom, and would recommend to use directly a RP18 column. If your GPC column was packed with THF or DMF you can switch to a water-miscible solvent, theoretically. In practice I would say you have a 50:50 chance to be successful, or to kill the column.