Journal of Chromatography A, 907 (2001) 201–209 www.elsevier.com / locate / chroma Influence of the carrier composition on thermal field-flow fractionation for the characterisation of sub-micron polystyrene latex particles 1 * E.P.C. Mes , R. Tijssen,W.Th. Kok Polymer Analysis Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, Netherlands Received 19 July 2000; received in revised form 26 September 2000; accepted 3 October 2000 Abstract A study on the influence of the carrier composition in a ThFFF system on the retention and thermal diffusion of sub-micron polystyrene latex particles has been carried out.Various factors that may influence retention were studied. These include: the type of electrolyte and surfactant, their respective concentrations, and the addition of an organic modifier. Particle retention is highly sensitive to small changes in the carrier composition. It is demonstrated that under the conditions applied, secondary effects, such as particle–wall and particle–particle interactions, are negligible. Addition of surfactants is required to minimise particle–wall interactions. Generally, retention increases at higher electrolyte concentration. Further- more, the addition of acetonitrile (ACN) to an aqueous carrier leads also to an increased retention. The type of surfactant as well as its concentration is of influence on the retention time. The three surfactants that were studied, i.e., sodium dodecyl sulfate, Brij 35 and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, showed significant differences in particle retention behaviour. The observed differences in retention in the carriers can be attributed to actual changes in thermal diffusion. D appears to be T mainly determined by the interaction between the particle’s surface and the carrier liquid, and is therefore highly sensitive to changes in the chemical composition of the particle surface and the carrier. Strong differences in size selectivity were found for different carrier compositions. This allows a relatively easy optimisation of the separation. On the other hand, it complicates the size and composition analysis of particles.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Thermal field-flow fractionation; Field-flow fractionation; Carrier composition; Surfactants; Latex particles 1. Introduction becoming increasingly popular to analyse particles. Where conventional polymer analysis methods such Although originally conceived as a method to as size-exclusion chromatography fail, due to its analyse polymers, field-flow fractionation (FFF) is open geometry FFF is perfectly able to separate particles in the range of a few nm up to 100 mm [1]. Up to now, most FFF applications for particle *Corresponding author. Tel.: 131-20-525-6539; fax: 131-20- analysis involve flow field-flow fractionation 525-5604. (FlowFFF) [2,3] or sedimentation field-flow frac- E-mail address: wkok@its.chem.uva.nl (W.Th. Kok). 1 tionation (SedFFF) [4,5]. For SedFFF, retention Current address: Dow Benelux N.V., Analytical Sciences Terneuzen, P.O. Box 48, 4530 AA Terneuzen, Netherlands. depends on the particle density and particle size 0021-9673 / 01 / $ – see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0021-9673(00)01010-4