Abstract
Short column sedimentation equillibrium method was applied to the determination of molecular weight of the low molecular compounds, especially, oligosaccharides. Theoretical consideration about the basic equillibrium equations were made on the ideal mono-dispersed, non-ideal mono-dispersed and ideal poly-dispersed solutions, then the two new computation methods of molecular weight were proposed. An error caused by the pressure effect was also estimated, and the relation between the error and the solvents properties was showed that the most preferrable solvents usable for the molecular weight determination of the low molecular oligosaccharides were water and alcohols. Experimental application of the above method on oligosaccharides such as maltose, lactose, raffinose and their mixtures gave the good results, consisting with the theoretical values.
