Identifying Challenges in Size Exclusion Chromatography Calibration and Its Coupling with Software Analysis

ABSTRACT Size‐exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis of polymers with nontrivial architectures presents specific challenges, seeing its separation of macromolecules by variations in hydrodynamic volume rather than true molar mass. Care should thus be taken with respect to calibration and detection strategies, with a coupling to (i) other higher scale experimental tools (e.g. rheology), and (ii) modeling techniques worthwhile in view of a detailed molecular characterization at the distributed level. We here formulate a first set of guidelines for improving SEC‐based characterization, putting forward the relevance of detailed experimental data recording and error analysis as well as in silico characterization support. We consider both linear homopolymers, copolymers, branched and crosslinked polymers, and highlight that within the polymer community we should further work on the even better embedding of multi‐detector approaches and advanced modeling techniques such as kinetic Monte Carlo. Overall this work supports the development of robust workflows for the analysis of advanced polymer materials, bridging the worlds of experimentalists and modelers.