Sedimentation Field-Flow Fractionation: A New Methodology for the Concentration and Particle Size Analysis of Dilute Polydisperse Colloidal Samples

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Abstract
It is shown that the on-channel concentration procedure for the analysis of dilute monodisperse colloidal samples in sedimentation field-flow fractionation, as established in a previous work(1), provides an accurate methodology for the concentraion and particle size analysis of dilute polydisperse colloidal samples. In order to test the methodology experiments are described using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) latex beads in the diameter range 0.173–0.334 μm. A series of fractograms were run in which the amount of the PVC sample was held constant while the volume in which it was contained was varied over a 20,000-fold range. The weight average particle diameters and the particle size distribution curves (histograms or cumulative distribution curves), determined by the on-channel concentration procedure at various experimental conditions, are in excellent agreement with those obtained under normal experimental conditions, in which a small concentrated volume of the same sample is injected directly into the column. Moreover, varying the density of the carrier solution, apart from the weight average particle diameter or the particle size distribution curve, the density of the PVC latex beads was obtained in accordance with that found by a common method.