Online LC-NMR - From an expensive toy to a powerful tool in polymer analysis

The present review is the latest and most comprehensive summary on advanced developments in the field of LC-NMR of polymers. Different from LC-NMR applications in biochemistry, pharmaceutics and other fields that target at the identification and quantitative determination of specific molecules, LC-NMR of polymers is aimed at the analysis of the molecular heterogeneity of complex macromolecular mixtures. Using LC-NMR the distributions in molar mass, chemical composition and molecular microstructure can be addressed. Although LC-NMR is the most expensive version of LC-spectroscopy couplings, it provides a wealth of qualitative and quantitative information that cannot be matched by any other coupling technique. The review presents the latest results on the coupling of NMR with SEC, HPLC, 2D-LC and field-flow fractionation (FFF) for the analysis of oligomers, copolymers and polymer blends. The given examples clearly prove that LC-NMR of polymers has matured and is now a powerful tool in advanced analytical polymer science.