This work aims to explore the feasibility for utilizing the “coil-to-stretch” transition for polymer separation/fractionation/characterization during a “dead-end” ultrafiltration process from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Theoretically, advantages/disadvantages of “dead-end” ultrafiltration and some other popular polymer separation/fractionation techniques (PSFTs) are compared and thoroughly discussed on the basis of key requirements for any technique to qualify as mature PSFTs. Experimentally, a home-designed ultrafiltration apparatus was developed and successfully applied to execute various separation/fractionation tasks for mixed solutions of polymer chains with varied topologies and sizes at laboratory scale. Based on theoretical modeling and experimental examination, the “dead-end” ultrafiltration system containing a detection module that can complement the prevailing PSFTs is found to be a powerful PSFT with the merits of low cost, high efficiency, high accessibility, easy handling, and universal applicability.

中文翻译：

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“死角”超滤：一种利用“卷曲到拉伸”过渡进行聚合物分离/分馏的有效技术

这项工作旨在从理论和实验角度探讨在“死角”超滤过程中利用“卷曲到拉伸”转变进行聚合物分离/分离/表征的可行性。从理论上讲，“死角”超滤和其他一些流行的聚合物分离/分离技术（PSFTs）的优缺点都在比较和讨论任何符合成熟PSFTs技术的关键要求的基础上进行了彻底讨论。实验上，开发了一种家用设计的超滤设备，并成功应用于实验室规模的拓扑结构和尺寸各异的聚合物链混合溶液的各种分离/分离任务。根据理论建模和实验检验，