As long as the polymer grows in size along with the abiotic site it is living and its growth continues till the monomer concentration is left in the reaction mixture. Dead polymer formation involves stoppage of growth of polymer by killing the anionic site using say chain arresting agent or by other means. Dead polymer is thermodynamically stable one. Once it forms you can very well determine its molecular weight by GPC.

It depends on what solvent are you using for. To remove your polymer charges you can use electrolite solvents

Thank you Nodirali S. Normakhamatov for your valuable suggestion. But can you provide me some reference so that i can better understand what sort of electrolytes can be used and how it works.

Thank you Mam Mina Karimi-Avargani

But I wonder why this problem occurs only when I use KPS as initiator. I tested the samples after washing and drying as per the requirements of the GPC. I believe it is due to some charge interference, but i don't know how to make sure if this is the reason.

Thank you Shrikaant Kulkarni

I agree to your point. I also believe that a polymer chain with a charge cannot be stable in solution. But i don't see any other reason. I dissolved the polymer in chloroform to form a clear transparent solution. But both KPS and SDS (surfactant) are insoluble in chloroform, so if present they had to precipitate in chloroform, but they don't.

Dear Anjali Preman ,

I can provide you with many references about removing polyelectrolite charges of the tested polymers, but I have doubt that you have a polymer product with charge, because of you used very little amount of KPS in your polymerization. I assume such little amount of functional group can not affect as a charging group.

i think the charge in polymer latex due to residue of initiator and surfactant. Therefre i suggest to wash the polymer latex in cull um by dilute HCl and followed by NaOH, then distilled water until there are no residue for the acid and base.

In acrylates the possibility of branching and crosslinking is very highy due to polymer chain transfer. I suggest to use a soxhlet extraction to quantify the soluble/insoluble material. Then inject to GPC the soluble fraction only.