Abstract: | Partial molar heats of mixing ΔH and Flory-Huggins χ parameters have been determined for a series of polar and nonpolar organic probes in the polymer systems polychloroprene, poly(butadiene-acrylonitrile) (34 wt. % acrylonitrile), poly(ethylene-vinylacetate) (40 wt. % vinylacetate) and cis-1,4-polybutadiene in the range 65–85°C. Using the Flory-Huggins χ parameters, infinite-dilution solubility parameters δ were calculated for the polymers at 75°C to be 8.8 ± 0.2 for polychloroprene 10.0 ± 0.3 for poly(butadiene-acrylonitrile), 8.3 ± 0.2 for poly(ethylene-vinylacetate) and 7.9 ± 0.1 for polybutadiene. These δ values are in good agreement with literature δ2 values. δ values were also calculated using only polar or nonpolar probes. The change in δ as the set of probes changed was negligible, leading to the conclusion that Hanson's three-dimensional solubility parameter concept may not be applicable to the infinite-dilution case. |