Hydrodynamic Chromatography as a Probe of Polymer Dynamics during Flow through Porous Media

Hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC) of both flexible and stiff macromolecules provides measurements of molecular size that depend strongly on column flow rate.^1,2This flow rate dependence is explained in terms of deformation and orientation of simple molecular models in steady uniaxial elongation, an idealized flow with many, but not all, of the properties required to describe the real flow of polymer solutions in complex porous media. The polymer/flow description discussed here follows from earlier theories for the anomalous “excess” pressure drop /flow rate behavior of low‒concentration polymer solutions in porous media.