High Pressure Size Exclusion Chromatography (HPSEC) of humic substances: molecular sizes, analytical parameters, and column performance

High Pressure Size Exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) is increasingly used to evaluate molecular sizes of humic substances from different sources. Asymmetry factors (As), number of theoretical plates (N), coefficient of distribution (k(d)), and column resolution (Rs) were determined for two different HPSEC columns (TSK G3000SW and Biosep S2000) and polysaccharides of known molecular weights were used as standards. Calibration curves were equivalent for both columns whereas analytical parameters revealed that the TSK column was only slightly more efficient in separating polysaccharide standards. Mw and Mn values for humic substances differed according to the molecular weight range of each column but relative standard deviation never exceeded 5% for both columns. Variations between columns were attributed to intrinsic humic properties such as the stability of conformational structures. These results suggested that humic substances in solutions are loosely-bound association of small molecules that may be consistently dispersed by diffusion through size-exclusion pores. HPSEC is confirmed to represent a highly precise method to evaluate the relative molecular-size distribution of dissolved humic substances.