The application of capillary supercritical fluid chromatography to analysis of three complex oligomeric mixtures of wide industrial importance is proposed. Separation of each oligomeric mixture will be evaluated with respect to three different stationary phases. Each stationary phase will be investigated at a minimum of three isothermal operating temperatures, at least three different mobile phases at near optimum average linear velocity and under various linear density programming conditions. The effect of each of these variables on the quality of the observed separation will be evaluated using Kaiser's "separation power" equation. The separation of each sample will be optimized with respect to the above conditions, then, once optimized, these conditions will be systematically varied so that the effect on relative retention can be calculated. The resulting information will be evaluated with respect to theoretically predicted behavior, and with respect to the physicochemical properties of the solutes and stationary phases. This research will provide a useful foundation in which to extend the research to biopolymers such as polypeptides, polysaccharides, triglycerides, and oligonucleotides.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: The research will lead to the development of instrumentation methods and instrumentation that will allow for improved product development and quality control of polymers and oligomers.
