| Abstract: | Vinyl acetate–vinyl alcohol copolymers were fractionated in order to obtain their degree of hydrolysis distributions. In the method employed for fractionation, the differences in molecular weight of copolymer did not affect the fractional separation. Degree of hydrolysis distributions was found to be broad, with a pronounced maximum at a low degree of hydrolysis. Viscosity measurements were performed both for the precipitated fractions and unfractionated polymer. The Huggins constant was found to increase with a decrease in the degree of hydrolysis of polyvinyl acetate. These results were interpreted in terms of a polymer molecular association. From values of Huggins constants, comparative information about copolymer “blockiness” is also established. |
