“…Preparative size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) have generally been used in research on humic substances as fractionation techniques rather than purification methods. Under ideal separation conditions, i.e., mobile phases with well-buffered pH values, ionic strengths of >0.02, and no hydrophobic solute−stationary phase interactions, , solutes with the largest sizes migrate through the column at the greatest rate, followed by solutes with progressively decreasing sizes, with no solutes eluting after the permeation limit (i.e., the total permeation volume of the column). Only a few studies have used SEC to analyze marine and estuarine DOM. ,− Huber and Frimmel (1994, 1996), , using on-line TOC detection, observed that the retention time of DOM solutes (either whole seawater or HMW isolates) is a function of both DOM molecular size and structural subunits.…”