COUPLED HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY INSTRUMENTATION FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMERS

THIS PROJECT DEVELOPS HYPHENATED LC-IR TECHNOLOGY THAT PROVIDES A MARKED ADVANCE OVER CONVENTIONAL CHROMATOGRAPHY/IR SPECTROSCOPY ANALYTIC METHODS. THE APPARATUS IS COUPLED WITH A COMPUTER SOFTWARE PACKAGE THAT AIDS IN THE ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLEX DATA SETS. AS PART OF THIS PROJECT, THE APPARATUS AND SOFTWARE ARE BEING APPLIED TO THE CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMER SAMPLES THAT DEMONSTRATE THE CAPABILITY AND UTILITY OF THIS TECHNOLOGY. THE RESEARCH PLAN IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS: DEVELOPMENT OF HARDWARE, TESTING OF SOFTWARE WITH STANDARD POLYMERS, AND SEPARATION OF A COPOLYMER MIXTURE USING THE INTEGRATED SYSTEM. THE FIRST TWO GOALS OF THE PROGRAM ARE CONCERNED WITH THE COMPLETION OF PRODUCT PROTOTYPES. THE WORK PLAN FOR THESE GOALS IS ACCORDINGLY STRUCTURED AS A TASK-ORIENTED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT. THE ABILITY TO OBTAIN DISCRETE INFRARED SPECTRA FROM CHROMATOGRAPHICALLY RESOLVED SAMPLES IS OF GREAT VALUE TO THE POLYMER CHEMIST. THE COMBINED CAPABILITY OF THE HARDWARE/SOFTWARE REPRESENTS A QUANTUM ADVANCE IN CAPABILITY FOR POLYMER CHARACTERIZATION, WITH RESULTANT OPTIMIZATION OF POLYMER SYNTHESES AND FORMULATION.