Dispersion of protein solutions in short, open capillary tubes as a method for rapid molecular weight determination.

A method has been developed by which the molecular weight of proteins and other freely diffusing species can be estimated on the basis of chromatographic peak shapes developed by injection of a sample into an open capillary tube in a liquid chromatography system. In chromatographic peaks obtained from such a system, there are contributions from both convection and diffusion. Thus, peak shape is dependent upon the diffusion coefficient of the molecular species, the flow rate, and the length of the capillary tube. In the work reported here it has been found that for samples of different proteins ranging from 2000 to 14,000 molecular weight, each injected at the same mobile phase flow rate, the ratio (R) of h1, the height of the peak primarily due to convection, to h2, the height of the "makeup" peak, primarily due to diffusion from the capillary wall, is a direct measure of protein molecular weight. Linear plots of R vs molecular weight are obtained under certain conditions.