Determination of thermal diffusion coefficients using thermal field-flow fractionation and Mark-Houwink constants

In this paper, a new approach for determination of thermal diffusion coefficient D(T) values using thermal field-flow fractionation retention data and Mark-Houwink constants is reported. The method utilizes the availability of Mark-Houwink constants from the literature together with thermal field-flow fractionation retention data to calculate D(T) values for both narrowly and broadly dispersed polymeric samples. The proposed method was tested with thermal field-flow fractionation data from a number of published papers. In general, D(T) results obtained from the new approach agree well with those reported from the literature. Since Mark-Houwink constants have been extensively tabulated, the new method can be used to generate a broad database of D(T) values for use in the characterization of polymers and in studies of the thermal diffusion phenomenon.