Decomposition of size-exclusion chromatography elution curves of complex branched polymers

•Multimodal elution curves of multidetector SEC can be decomposed.•The sample components characterized by the peaks can be separately evaluated.•The viscosity properties of the components can be separately evaluated.

A new method for the decomposition of non-baseline-resolved multimodal elution curves of SEC with the concentration, light scattering and viscosity detection is presented. The method makes possible the characterization of the polymer-sample components, represented by the peaks forming multimodal elution curves, individually and reduces also the error in the calculation of molecular-weight averages. The procedure is demonstrated on narrow molecular-weight distribution polystyrene standards and their mixture as well as on a grafted polymer sample.