Polymers continue to play an ever increasing role in the modern world. In fact it is quite inconceivable to most people that we could ever have existed of the increased volume and variety of materials without them. As a result currently available, and the diversity of their application, characterisation has become an essential requirement of industrial and academic laboratories in volved with polymeric materials. On the one hand requirements may come from polymer specialists involved in the design and synthesis of new materials who require a detailed understanding of the relationship between the precise molecular architecture and the properties of the polymer in order to improve its capabilities and range of applications. On the other hand, many analysts who are not polymer specialists are faced with the problems of analysing and testing a wide range of polymeric materials for quality control or material specification purposes. We hope this book will be a useful reference for all scientists and techno or industrial laboratories, logists involved with polymers, whether in academic and irrespective of their scientific discipline. We have attempted to include in one volume all of the most important techniques. Obviously it is not possible to do this in any great depth but we have encouraged the use of specific examples to illustrate the range of possibilities. In addition numerous references are given to more detailed texts on specific subjects, to direct the reader where appropriate. The book is divided into II chapters."

There is a large and increasing variety of polymers currently in use both for domestic and industrial applications. The properties of polymers are deter mined not only by their chemical type, but also by their molecular mass and molecular mass distributions. However, while the chemical type of polymers can be determined relatively easily, the average molecular masses and molecular mass distributions are more difficult to measure. The molecular mass averages of a polymer are measured by specialized and complex techniques such as light scattering (for weight average) and osmometry (for number average). Thus, complete characterization of the molecular mass distribution of a polymer by such means requires separating the sample into many fractions which can then be examined individually. Since size exclusion chromatography was introduced as a rapid and straightforward technique for the characterization of polymer molecular mass distributions, there have been tremendous increases in development and applications, and it was felt appropriate to bring together into a single volume the information required by scientists from many disciplines who wish to use the technique. This book should be useful to existing users, those who are new to the technique, and those who may be familiar with the basic technique and now wish to extend their capabilities to more complex applications (or to consider the potential of a number of related techniques). The book will also be of general interest to the experienced liquid chromatographer.

Polymers continue to play an ever increasing role in the modern world. In fact it is quite inconceivable to most people that we could ever have existed of the increased volume and variety of materials without them. As a result currently available, and the diversity of their application, characterisation has become an essential requirement of industrial and academic laboratories in volved with polymeric materials. On the one hand requirements may come from polymer specialists involved in the design and synthesis of new materials who require a detailed understanding of the relationship between the precise molecular architecture and the properties of the polymer in order to improve its capabilities and range of applications. On the other hand, many analysts who are not polymer specialists are faced with the problems of analysing and testing a wide range of polymeric materials for quality control or material specification purposes. We hope this book will be a useful reference for all scientists and techno or industrial laboratories, logists involved with polymers, whether in academic and irrespective of their scientific discipline. We have attempted to include in one volume all of the most important techniques. Obviously it is not possible to do this in any great depth but we have encouraged the use of specific examples to illustrate the range of possibilities. In addition numerous references are given to more detailed texts on specific subjects, to direct the reader where appropriate. The book is divided into II chapters."