TABLE OF CONTENTS There are numerous examples of information derived by one of the four basic experiments or combinations thereof using an ultracentrifuge. They cannot be treated completely here, but the selected applications will show that analytical ultracentrifugation is a universal absolute technique for the characterization of polymers or colloids, especially in mixtures. The given examples have been chosen in a way that the range of information which was obtained by AUC is broad. At the end of the chapter, an overview table that will give the reader a guide to the primary literature for specific systems is provided, although this table is by no means exhaustive.
The application of AUC for the determination of particle sizes and their distributions to address problems of colloid analysis was already realized by the pioneers of this technique because sedimentation velocity experiments provide a sensitive fractionation according to particle sizes/molar masses. [3] , [126] [129] Nevertheless, it appears that the potential of this application is still not yet commonly recognized. It is relatively straightforward to convert a sedimentation coefficient distribution, which can be calculated using Equation (2) for every data point (a) r i (if a radial scan has been acquired at a specified time) or (b) t i (if concentration detection at a specified radius has been performed in dependence of time), to a particle size distribution. Assuming the validity of Stoke's law ( e.g. the sample is spherical), the following derivative...
