United States Department of Transportation
i
Implementation of GPC characterization of asphalt binders at Louisiana materials laboratory : tech summary.
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2013-10-01
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Abstract:Asphalt is a mixture of a wide variety of chemical compounds that include aliphatic hydrocarbons and highly fused
aromatic ring systems. They are classifi ed as asphaltenes (medium molecular weight) and maltenes (low molecular
weight). To improve the fi nal properties of an asphalt binder, a high molecular weight polymer is added. In the case of
SBS (polystyrene-b-polybutadiene-b-polystyrene, a block copolymer) and SBR (polystyrene-polybutadiene rubber)
polymer-modifi ed asphalt cements (PMACs), the polymer-modifi ed asphalt binder can be regarded as a true solution
in which the polymer is homogeneously blended with the components of the base asphalt cement. Because there is a
large diff erence between the molecular mass of polymer molecules and the mass of asphalt components (~ two orders of
magnitude), the polymer can be easily visualized using a size exclusion analysis, such as gel permeation chromatography
(GPC). As shown previously, the polymer and asphalt components of polymer-modifi ed asphalt cements can be
separated completely using gel permeation chromatography. It is of interest to apply GPC methodology to routine
characterization of asphalt binders and to employ the technique in forensic analysis of paving problems.
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