Abstract
The compositional heterogeneity of styrene-methylmethacrylate copolymer has been evaluated by a UV-RI dual-detector method and by a RI detector-pyrolysis-gas chromatographic method and problems associated with the determination of the chemical heterogeneity by a UV-RI method are discussed. The quotient of signals H(UV)/H(RI) of both the detectors (UV and RI) for polystyrene increased at the extreme parts of the molecular weight distribution owing to nonlinearity of UV response. The correction of the quotient of signals of both detectors for the copolymer was proposed. The UV and RI response factors for the copolymer were supposed to differ from those for homopolymers. Reproducibility for the detector responses influences the values of chemical heterogeneity much more than expected. To overcome these problems, the detection method to obtain each composition independently using different detectors will be preferable.