Size-exclusion chromatography of enzymatically treated cellulose and related polysaccharides: a review.

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) of wood pulp polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicelluloses) has become widely used for the analysis of these polymers, including monitoring of transformations occurring under various chemical and biological processes. The present review provides information on the different procedures and methodologies developed for the characterization of molecular mass distribution (MMD) and chemical composition of cellulose and hemicelluloses by SEC. This paper also includes the significant results obtained in the characterization of enzymatically treated wood polysaccharides. Conventional SEC with double detection (refractometric and UV), "hyphenated" with a fractional dissolution, was demonstrated to be an efficient method for simultaneous determination of MMD and chemical heterogeneity.