Partitioning of star branched polymers into pores at three chromatography conditions

The partitioning of star branched polymers into a slit pore at three different chromatography conditions, namely, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), liquid chromatography at the critical condition (LCCC), and liquid adsorption chromatography (LAC) have been investigated with lattice Monte Carlo simulations. Two different chain models are used: random walks (RW) that have no excluded volume interaction and self-avoiding walks (SAW) that have excluded volume interaction. The simulation data obtained for the two chain models are compared to illustrate the effect of excluded volume interactions on the partitioning of star branched polymers. The two most outstanding effects observed due to the introduction of excluded volume interactions are: (i) stars with a high number of arms can be excluded from the pore at condition corresponding to the LCCC of the linear polymers; (ii) the partition coefficient of stars in LAC mode is not dependent only on the total number of monomers on the chain. These effects illustrated by the current study should be taken into account when interpreting experimental chromatography data for branched polymers.