Quenching of pyrene fluorescence as a technique for characterisation of swelling of interpenetrating polymer network: polyethylene/poly(styrene-co-butylmethacrylate)

A real-time monitoring of oxygen quenching of monomer fluorescence of bound probes: 1-pyrenemethyl methacrylate (PyMMA) and 1-pyrenemethyl(4-vinylbenzyl)ether (4-(1-pyrenyl)methoxymethylstyrene, PyMMS) was used for study of swelling of interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) consisting of polyethylene/poly(styrene-co-butylmethacrylate) (PE/P(S-co-BMA)) with different network density. The curves of oxygen quenching of pyrene chromophore were fitted to the monoexponential form of second Fick Law. The estimated diffusion coefficient of oxygen was in the range of 1-10 × 10⁻⁶ cm² s⁻¹ depending on the solvent and phase of IPN system. There is no dependence of fluorescence quenching by oxygen on cross-link density in this IPN systems.