ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the basic obstacles encountered at high molecular weights and thus shed light on the relative participation of practical and fundamental problems in this area. It discusses the comparison of size exclusion chromatography (SEC) with a promising competing technology, field-flow fractionation. The mobilization of flow with SEC supports is particularly worrisome in systems designed to fractionate large particles and ultrahigh molecular weight polymers. The chapter also discusses some general equations describing resolution and analysis time in SEC. While the effect is not necessarily unfavorable to column selectivity, it does somewhat increase the problem of standardization because retention results will depend upon support particle diameter. The chapter explores a more subtle effect of pore flow, which we term the polarization effect. We have pointed out that there is no extensional shear to contribute to shear degradation, and additionally there is no polarization effect.
