Effect of ionic strength on the size-exclusion chromatography of aqueous polystyrene latices

Abstract

Purified polystyrene latices with narrow particle-size distributions have been prepared and studied by size-exclusion chromatography (s.e.c.) with columns packed with porous glass beads. Mean elution volumes and peak widths are found to increase as the ionic strength, I, of the eluant is increased. This can be interpreted quantitatively in terms of an effective exclusion radius of a latex particle which includes a contribution from the electrical double layers that is proportional to I^–½.