Commissioning of two teams of chromatography for the determination of average molecular weight and the ashes in polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl acetate and copolymer.

Identifier:  TFG:1197

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFG1197

Authors:  Márquez Muñoz, Cristina

Abstract:
ABSTRACT The goal of the final Project has been set up two analytical techniques with different chromatographies. One of this is the gel permeation chromatography (GPC), which is a type of size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and the other one is the ionic exclusion chromatography (IEC) The basis of the separation mechanism of GPC relies solely on the size of the polymer molecules in solution. The purpose of this technique is characterize the polynivyl acetate and copolymer products in the Tarragona plant of SEKISUI SPECIALITY CHEMICAL EUROPE S.L. The results obtained are related with molecular weight which occurs not as a discrete value but as a distribution, the viscosity and polidispersity with de refractive index, viscometer and light scattering detectors. The other technique, the ionic exclusion chromatography, the technique is capable of separating molecular species that have only minor differences in their charge properties. Since molecules vary considerably in their charge propierties and will exhibit different degrees of interaction with charged chromatography media. So, the purpose is determinate ions of sodium acetate and sodium formate present in the polivynyl alcohol and copolymer samples. The current analytical technique uses a sodium selective electrode that can not differentiate these ions, it only gives the total ions. Due to the more selectivity and sensitivity of the new technique, the ions can be determined separately.