Specific separation- and detection strategies for the characterization of acid-functional polymers

Sustainable solutions for many parts of our society are increasingly important to reduce the environmental impact of human life on our planet. Water-borne coatings are replacing solvent-based products in a rapid pace, thereby reducing the release of volatile organic materials into the atmosphere. Water-borne polymers commonly employ incorporated acid-functionality, which acts as a stabilizing group – keeping the polymer dispersions stable. Despite these functional groups being a vital part of the application of a very important class of complex materials, the characterization techniques currently available lack specific information regarding the chemical microstructure of these functional monomer units. This dissertation aimed to establish new chromatographic approaches which are able to specifically separate polymers according to the relative or absolute presence of these functional groups or to specifically detect these functional groups in said polymers. The developed approaches provide more insight into the microstructure of acid functionality in water-borne polymers for both quantitative and functional distribution aspects.
Specific derivatization of functional groups in polymers followed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography mass spectrometry (PyGCMS) or size exclusion chromatography coupled with refractive index- and ultraviolet detection (SEC-RI-UV) is easily applied and expandable to other polymer functionalities. Charge-based separation techniques such as non-aqueous ion-exchange chromatography (NAIEX, preferably hyphenated in multi-dimensional separations with size-exclusion chromatography) and non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis (NACE) provide clearly orthogonal separations compared to available polymer characterization techniques.