Retention behaviour of polystyrene oligomers in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was employed to investigate the behaviour of low-molecular-mass polystyrene oligomers with three different end groups, n-butyl, sec-butyl, and tert.-butyl polystyrenes. Exothermodynamic retention studies on the polystyrene oligomers were carried out using a C18 stationary phase column and 100% methanol mobile phase over the temperature range 15 to 60 degrees C. The resulting van't Hoff plots were linear over the entire temperature range for all three end group polystyrenes. Enthalpy-entropy compensation (EEC) showed a linear compensation for the higher-order oligomers, but was non-linear for the lower-order oligomers, indicating a change in the mechanism of retention. Differences in the extent of retention for each of the three end groups were also apparent. The ramifications of these differences are discussed.