Adsorption and flocculation by polymers and polymer mixtures

Polymers of various types are in widespread use as flocculants in several industries. In most cases, polymer adsorption is an essential prerequisite for flocculation and kinetic aspects are very important. The rates of polymer adsorption and of re-conformation (relaxation) of adsorbed chains are key factors that influence the performance of flocculants and their mode of action. Polyelectrolytes often tend to adopt a rather flat adsorbed configuration and in this state their action is mainly through charge effects, including ‘electrostatic patch’ attraction. When the relaxation rate is quite low, particle collisions may occur while the adsorbed chains are still in an extended state and flocculation by polymer bridging may occur. These effects are now well understood and supported by much experimental evidence. In recent years there has been considerable interest in the use of multi-component flocculants, especially dual-polymer systems. In the latter case, there can be significant advantages over the use of single polymers. Despite some complications, there is a broad understanding of the action of dual polymer systems. In many cases the sequence of addition of the polymers is important and the pre-adsorbed polymer can have two important effects: providing adsorption sites for the second polymer or causing a more extended adsorbed conformation as a result of ‘site blocking’.     

Degradation of polymer mixtures. IV. Blends of poly(vinyl acetate) with poly(vinyl chloride) and other chlorine-containing polymers

The degradation of the binary polymer blends, poly(vinyl acetate)/poly(vinyl chloride), poly(vinyl acetate)/poly(vinylidene chloride) and poly(vinyl acetate)/polychloroprene has been studied by using thermal volatilization analysis, thermogravimetry, evolved gas analysis for hydrogen chloride and acetic acid, and spectroscopic methods. For the first two systems named, strong interaction occurs in the degrading blend, but the polychloroprene blends showed no indication of interaction. In the PVA/PVC and PVA/PVDC blends, hydrogen chloride from the chlorinated polymer causes substantial acceleration in the deacetylation of PVA. Acetic acid from PVA destabilizes PVC but has little effect in the case of PVDC because of the widely differing degradation temperatures of PVA and PVDC. The presence of hydrogen chloride during the degradation of PVA results in the formation of longer conjugated sequences, and the regression in sequence length at high extents of deacetylation found for PVA degraded alone is not observed.     

Lactone polymers. IV. Glass transition temperatures of monomeric lactones and their polymers

Glass transition temperatures were determined for a homologous series of unsubstituted lactone monomers varying in ring size from four to sixteen atoms. Examination of these transitions as a function of ring size shows a maximum in T_g for the seven-atom ε-caproalctone ring. This behavior is interpreted on the basis of a conformational change in lactones which occurs in rings containing seven to nine atoms. The T_g values of polylactones derived from these cyclic esters were determined and correlated with T_g values of the monomers. Except for the anomolous ε-caprolactone and the strained fourmembered lactone, an apparently constant difference between monomer and polymer T_g is observed. Treatment of the polylactones as methylene copolymers permits extrapolations of the T_g values to obtain that of polyethylene. Two values suggesting the γ and β transitions of polyethylene are obtained.     

Chelate polymers. IV. siloxanes functionalized with chelating groups derived from hydroxy‐ketones,their metal complexes and some polymers

New ligands were obtained by the reaction of 1,3‐bis(3‐aminopropyl)tetramethyldisiloxane, with acetylacetone, 2,4‐dihydroxybenzophenone and 2,4‐dihydroxyacetophenone. The structures were confirmed by electronic, IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The change of the refractive index of the siloxanes by their chemical modification was also examined. These compounds were used for coordination of some divalent metals. The ligands and their metal complexes were both soluble in common solvents, such as CHCl₃, dimethylformamide, dimethylsulfoxide, N‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone. Some of the bifunctional chelates were inserted into polymeric structures by polycondensation with the diacid chloride of bis(p‐carboxyphenyl)diphenylsilane. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vinyl monomers bearing chromophore moieties and their polymers. IV. Fluorescence and photosensitizing behavior of 8-acryloyloxyquinoline and its polymer

Acrylic monomers bearing electron-donating quinolyl moiety, i.e., 8-acryloyloxyquinoline (AQ) was prepared and polymerized. It was found that the fluorescence intensity of AQ was much lower than that of P(AQ) at the same chromophore concentration. The fluorescence of P(AQ) could be quenched by electron-deficient vinyl monomers, such as acrylonitrile (AN) and methyl methacrylate (MMA). This is another example of the “fluorescence structural self-quenching effect” termed by us previously, and demonstrates again that this phenomenon is not an accidental but a general one for acrylic monomers bearing electron-donating chromophores. The photopolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) sensitized by AQ and P(AQ) as well as combining with carbon tetrabromide (CBr₄) was studied kinetically. From the rates of the polymerization (R_p) and overall activation energies obtained for these four systems, it was found that R_p sensitized by the binary systems was much higher than by AQ or P(AQ) alone, while the molecular weights of the resulting P(AN) were lower. The fluorescent analysis of the resulting P(AN) in solution showed that the sensitizers also entered into the P(AN) chains. A mechanism of charge transfer complex (CTC) formation was tentatively suggested for the photopolymerization of AN initiated by these four systems. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 35: 1087–1093, 1997     

Studies on polymers containing functional groups. III. Charge-transfer interaction between quinone and aza polymers

Absorption maxima and equilibrium constants for charge-transfer complexes between quinone and aza polymers, such as poly-2-vinylpyridine, poly-4-vinylpyridine, poly-2-methyl-5-vinylpyridine, and poly-N-dimethylaminomethylacrylamide, were determined spectrophotometrically. For comparison, those for charge-transfer complexes between quinone and aza compounds, such as pyridine, methyl-substituted pyridines, quinoline, triethylamine, and dimethylaniline were also presented. It was found that the equilibrium constants for polymer complexes are always larger than those for the corresponding monomer complexes, while the time required for attaining the equilibrium was longer for polymer complexes than for monomer complexes. In the interaction between quinone and poly-N-dimethylaminomethylacrylamide, two absorption maxima which gradually shifted towards each other were observed. The same phenomenon was found in the interaction between quinone and the corresponding monomer, triethylamine.     

Vinyl chloride polymers and their use in polymer blends

A short introduction to polymer-polymer miscibility and to the prediction of the miscibility of polymers is given. The four main types of polymer-modified poly(vinyl chloride) (plastification, impact modification, processing aids and heat deflection temperature modification) are explained by examples. The thermal stability of poly(vinyl chloride) in such blends is discussed; the effectivity of tin-stabilizers may be higher in such blends than in pure poly(vinyl chloride).     

Heterogeneous polymer systems. IV. Mechanism of rubber particle formation in rubber-modified vinyl polymers

A mechanism for the formation of rubber particles in the polymerization of solutions of rubber in vinyl monomers is presented. A polymeric oil-in-oil emulsion is formed in the first phase of the polymerization. This polymeric oil-in-oil emulsion is transtormed into a solid dispersion of rubber in vinyl polymer in the second phase of the polymerization. A phase inversion takes place in the emulsion in the first phase of the polymerization. Rubber solution droplets are formed at the phase inversion point. These droplets harden as the polymerization proceeds and are gradually transformed into the solid, crosslinked rubber particles of the final polymer.     

Reactions on polymers with amine groups. I. Reactions of vinylpridine polymers and of their model compounds with unsaturated carboxylic acids

The reactions of vinylpyridine polymers with α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids such as acrylic, methacrylic, crotonic, itaconic, cinnamic, fumaric, and maleic acids were studied. It was found that, when reacted with acrylic, itaconic and fumaric acids. poly(4-vinylpyridine) gave macromolecular betaine products while with maleic acid, betaine as well as the corresponding salt was obtained. Poly(2-vinylpyridine) reacted with the same acids as poly(4-vinylpyridine) gave only the salts. No significant changes were observed with the two polymers when reacted with methacrylic, crotonic, and cinnamic acids. To attempt to rationalize these observations with the two macromolecular tertiary amines, the reactions of 4-methyl and 2-methylpyridines with the same carboxylic acids were investigated. The ¹H-NMR methodology was generally applied to elucidate the chemical structure obtained. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Interpenetrating polymer networks from polyurethanes and methacrylate polymers. II. Interpenetrating polymer networks with opposite charge groups

Interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) with opposite charge groups (tertiary amine and carboxyl groups) made from polyurethanes and methacrylate polymers have been synthesized and their properties and morphology, studied. With increasing carboxyl group concentration the mechanical properties and compatibility between the component networks were significantly improved, possibly because of the negative (or zero) free energy produced by the interaction contribution between the tertiary amine groups in the polyurethanes and the carboxyl groups in the methacrylate polymers determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The improved molecular mixing in these IPNs was thought to be due to the influence of the opposite charge groups in these systems.     

Extractive separation and photometric determination of neptunium(IV) and plutonium(IV) from their mixtures

A rapid and sensitive method for the photometric determination of trace amounts of neptunium and plutonium from their mixtures is described. Np(IV) is selectively extracted from about 1 M HNO₃ medium with TTA in xylene retaining Pu in the nonextractable trivalent state in the aq. phase with ferrous sulfamate. Plutonium in the aqueous phase is subsequently oxidized with NaNO₂ to the highly extractable tetravalent state and extracted with TTA. Np(IV) as well as Pu(IV) thus extracted are finally estimated in the organic phase itself spectrophotometrically employing xylenol orange as the chromogenic reagent. Their molar absorptivities are in the 5 × 10⁴ range. Beer's law is valid up to 2.4 ppm Np and 3.5 ppm Pu. The color of the solutions is stable for at least 48 hr. The method tolerates large excess of several common contaminants encountered during spent fuel reprocessing. Cerium(IV) and phosphoric acid, however, interfere with the final estimation.     

Some novel photosensitive diacetylene diurethanes and their mixtures in common polymers

Some new octa-3,5-diynylene diurethanes were prepared using 3-butyn-1-ol, and all were found to be highly light-sensitive and to undergo topochemical polymerization on exposure to irradiation. The di-n-octyldiurethane was mixed with vinyl polymers such as poly(vinyl acetate) and poly(N,N-dimethylamino-ethyl methacrylate) and the mixtures were made into thin films by spin coating. The films were then irradiated by an electron beam to polymerize the diacetylene. The purple films thus obtained showed third-order nonlinear susceptibility, χ⁽³⁾, of the order of 10⁻¹⁰–10⁻¹¹ e.s.u.     

Lattice cluster theory of associating polymers. IV. Phase behavior of telechelic polymer solutions

The newly developed lattice cluster theory (in Paper I) for the thermodynamics of solutions of telechelic polymers is used to examine the phase behavior of these complex fluids when effective polymer-solvent interactions are unfavorable. The telechelics are modeled as linear, fully flexible, polymer chains with mono-functional stickers at the two chain ends, and these chains are assumed to self-assemble upon cooling. Phase separation is generated through the interplay of self-assembly and polymer/solvent interactions that leads to an upper critical solution temperature phase separation. The variations of the boundaries for phase stability and the critical temperature and composition are analyzed in detail as functions of the number M of united atom groups in a telechelic chain and the microscopic nearest neighbor interaction energy ε(s) driving the self-assembly. The coupling between self-assembly and unfavorable polymer/solvent interactions produces a wide variety of nontrivial patterns of phase behavior, including an enhancement of miscibility accompanying the increase of the molar mass of the telechelics under certain circumstances. Special attention is devoted to understanding this unusual trend in miscibility.     

Co-pyrolysis of wood biomass and synthetic polymers mixtures: Part IV: Catalytic pyrolysis of pine wood and polyolefinic polymers mixtures in hydrogen atmosphere

The pyrolysis in a hydrogen atmosphere of pine wood and synthetic polymers (polyethylene and polypropylene) mixtures was studied in a rotating autoclave. The effects of reaction temperature, wood/polymers mixture composition and catalysts, on the mixtures conversion into liquids and gases were established and discussed. The used catalysts were pyrrhotite and haematite materials activated by mechanochemical treatment.In the co-liquefaction processes the interaction between fragments of wood and polymers thermal decomposition took place. This results in non-additive increase of the wood/polymers conversion degree by 10–15 wt.% and of the yield of distillate fractions by 14–19 wt.%. Iron ore materials were found catalytically active in the process of hydropyrolysis of wood/polymers mixtures. By using these catalysts a significant increase of the distillable liquids amounts (by 14–21 wt.%) and a sharp decrease of olefins and cycloparaffins content (by approximately two to three times) were observed.     

Effect of polymer on electron-donating character of polymer donor. II. Formation of charge-transfer complex between polymers containing N-dimethylaniline group and trinitrotoluene

Formation of charge-transfer complexes with trinitrotoluene (TNT) as a common acceptor was studied in detail by using dimethyltoluidine (DMT), poly-N-dimethyl-p-aminostyrene (poly-ASt), and also copolymers of aminostyrene (ASt) and styrene (St) as donors. A smooth bathochromic shift in λ_max was observed with increasing ASt unit content in copolymers. Values of the constant for charge transfer complex formation K_CT were found to increase smoothly with ASt unit content. However, the K_CT value with DMT did not coincide with the value extrapolated from the plot of K_CT value versus ASt unit content to zero ASt unit content, but was found to be much higher than the limiting value, in contradiction to the results obtained with maleic anhydride (MAnh). The entropy of complex formation with DMT was found to be exceptionally small; this small value may be responsible for the high K_CT value with DMT.     

Structure and properties of non-classical polymers. IV. Magnetic properties of polymers with superexchange interaction

It is shown that, for a new class of polymers, ferromagnetic superexchange may arise. The model polymers of the new class have specific electronic structure. In addition to the delocalized system of coupled π electrons, these polymers have singly occupied molecular orbitals localized within each monomer unit. The localized electrons are indirectly exchange coupled, mediated via delocalized orbitals. The resultant exchange interaction is ferromagnetically signed. It depends strongly on the energy gap of the delocalized π-electron system. The suggested model is close to the superexchange of some rare earth magnetics where magnetic f electrons interact indirectly due to delocalized s electron system. The theory of Ruderman, Kittel, Kasuya and Yosida is used in the quantitative treatment of the exchange interaction.     

Oriented polymers from solution. IV. Polyethylene/polypropylene blend films

Work on the surface-growth method of producing blend films from mixed solutions of two polymers has exposed a random fluctuation in both growth rate and composition of the blend film with time of deposition. The effects are explained by heterogeneous separation of the two polymer components in the solution induced by the stirring action of the rotor of the Couette apparatus used. The solution is thus converted to a colloidal sol which on cooling forms a gel which exhibits syneresis at room temperature. The sol-to-gel transition is thermally reversible.     

A perturbed hard-sphere-chain equation of state for nematic liquid crystals and their mixtures with polymers

A perturbed hard-sphere-chain (PHSC) equation of state is presented to compute nematicisotropic equilibria for thermotropic liquid crystals, including mixtures. The equation of state consists of an isotropic term and an anisotropic term given by the Maier-Saupe theory whose contribution disappears in the isotropic phase. The isotropic contribution is the recently presented PHSC equation of state for normal fluids and polymers which uses a reference equation of state for athermal hard-sphere chains and a perturbation theory for the squarewell fluid of variable well width. The PHSC equation of state gives excellent correlations of pure-component pressure-volume-temperature data in the isotropic region and, combined with the Maier-Saupe theory, correlates the dependence of nematic-isotropic transition temperature on the pressure. Theory also predicts a nematic-isotropic biphasic region and liquid-liquid phase separation in a temperature-composition diagram of binary mixtures containing a nematic liquid crystal and a normal fluid or polymer. Theory and experiment show good agreement for pure fluids as well as for mixtures.     

Solvent extraction of neptunium(IV) from nitric acid solutions by sulphoxides and their mixtures

Studies have been performed on the liquid-liquid extraction of neptunium from nitric acid solutions by di-n-hexylsulphoxide (DHSO) di-no-octylsulphoxide (DOSO) and di-iso-amylsulphoxide (DISO) and their mixtures over a wide range of conditions. At a given strength of the extractant, extraction of Np(IV) increases initially rapidly with increase in the acid concentration; at high acidities, above 8M HNO₃, the extraction decreases. Under otherwise identical conditions, extraction increases with an increase in the extractant concentration. The species extracted would appear to be Np(NO₃)₄·2(R₂SO). A mixture of two extractants extracts more than the sum of the extractions due to the individual components at concentrations corresponding to those of the mixture. After loading the organic phase with uranium(VI), extractability of Np(IV) becomes considerably lower. The diminution in extraction with increase in temperature is small. A comparison of the extraction behaviour of Np(IV) with those of Pu(IV), U(VI) and some associated fission products has been made.