Kinetic control of three-species association reactions in gel chromatography.

The gel chromatographic patterns of a monomer-dimer-tetramer system under kinetic control have been studied by computer simulation. In no case do the derivative curves of the concentration profiles exhibit more than bimodality in these systems and in some cases are found to exist as a single, almost symmetric, peak. The monomer-dimer reaction affects the dimer-tetramer reaction only slightly and the same is true for the effect of the dimer-tetramer reaction on that of the monomer-dimer. All systems can be fit, to a first approximation, by an empirical formula which suggests any reaction with a first order half life within one and one half or two orders of the transport time will be under kinetic control.