Characterization of enzymatic degradation products of carboxymethyl cellulose by gel chromatography

In order to investigate the molecular weight distribution of depolymerization products obtained by enzymatic degradation of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), a high resolution size exclusion chromatographic (SEC) system was developed.The SEC system using Fractogel® TSK-HW and an eluent containing sodium sulfate and sodium acetate enables an effective separation of the anionic cleavage products to be carried out. The experimental set-up was equipped with a sensitive detection system based on the post-column reaction of carbohydrates with orcinol.The elution patterns of enzymatic depolymerization products obtained from CMC with different degrees of substitution make it feasible to infer parts of the sequence and the distribution of carboxymethyl groups.