RECENT PROGRESS IN CARBOHYDRATE SEPARATION BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY BASED ON SIZE-EXCLUSION

Since the introduction of stationary phases based on microparticulate porous silica and polymeric sorbents, rigid and semi-rigid, size-exclu sion chromatography (SEC) has become established as a form of high-per formance liquid chromatography. In recent years, there have been revol utionary developments in detection systems for highperformance SEC, wh ich have placed the use of the method for the determination of molecul ar-size and molecular-weight distributions of polymers on a sound theo retical basis and increased the range of information on molecular char acteristics that can be retrieved from SEC data. This review surveys t hese changes in SEC systems and their application to the separation an d molecular-weight distribution analysis of carbohydrates.