Particle characterization in centrifugal fields. Comparison between ultracentrifugation and sedimentation field-flow fractionation.

A ten-component mixture of polystyrene latex particles in the 67-1220 nm size range was subjected to analysis by analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) and sedimentation field-flow fractionation (SdFFF) using programmed and constant fields. The AUC analysis of the mixture yielded diameter values in good agreement with data determined on the separate components; the relative amounts of each component in the mixture were likewise closely reproducing the sample's known composition. Diameters determined by SdFFF, either in a constant- or programmed-field mode, were in good agreement with the AUC for particles smaller than about 500 nm. For the sample's larger components, however, particularly the programmed mode showed diameter values smaller than expected. In addition, field programming resulted in incomplete recoveries of the larger particles, leading to more or less distorted mass distributions for the complex sample. The observed discrepancies, which are thought to result from events at the analytical wall in the FFF channel, suggested a protocol for accurate sizing, as opposed to fingerprinting, of samples with broad size distribution. By tracking sizes and amounts of the different components at different but constant field strengths, and retaining as analytically valid only those data recorded in a retention range from five to about thirty column volumes, it was possible to determine sizes and amounts in good agreement with known parameters for the sample. Unlike the AUC procedure, SdFFF produces fractions of a high degree of uniformity, which lend themselves to a secondary analysis, e.g. by electron microscopy, as shown in the study.