BIOLOGICAL VARIATION IN THE DEGREE OF POLYMERIZATION OF COTTON LINT CELLULOSE PRODUCED IN SOUTH-AFRICA .1. BASIC METHODS AND ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT OF DATA

Size-exclusion chromatography coupled with a multi-angle laser light-s cattering detector is a proven and effective technique for measuring a bsolute molecular weights (M(w)) and molecular weight distributions of cellulose derivatives. Because cellulose is a natural polymer with mu ch variation, average M(w) and degree of polymerization (DP) values ar e of limited value. By plotting and processing absolute DP distributio ns as directly calculated from the M(w) values, an accurate estimate o f the Dp distribution of a cellulose sample can be obtained. This appr oach offers the possibility to extend current data processing, which c onsists mainly of graphic presentations, to exhaustive statistical ana lyses of the acquired data, previously not possible.