Conductivity of nonaqueous solutions of aromatic polymers containing ionizable side groups

The concentration dependence of the equivalent conductivity has been measured for dilute DMAc solutions of K, Na, and Li salts of aromatic polymers with ionizable side groups poly(diphenylenesulfophthalide) and poly(arylene ether ketone) with side COOH groups]. A correlation between the concentration dependences of the equivalent conductivity and reduced viscosity shows that the first parameter initially sharply decreases with an increase in concentration and then achieves a limiting value at a rather low concentration and that precisely in this concentration range the polyelectrolyte effect manifests itself in the concentration versus reduced viscosity curve. With an increasing amount of metal ions incorporated into the polymer, the equivalent conductivity grows. It was demonstrated that the type of counterion affects the reduced viscosity and equivalent conductivity of salt solutions. This effect depends on the structure of the polymer backbone: for poly(arylene ether ketone) salts, the reduced viscosity and the equivalent conductivity increase in the sequence Li → Na → K, while for poly(diphenylenesulfophthalide) salts, the reduced viscosity increases in the reverse order and the equivalent conductivity remains almost invariable. The limiting values of the equivalent conductivity and the degree of association of polyelectrolytes have been estimated in terms of the Arrhenius-Ostwald theory. It has been shown that, in the case of poly(diphenylenesulfophthalide) salts, the equivalent conductivity and the degree of association are higher than those for poly(arylene ether ketone) salts with side COOH groups. This finding is indicative of a stronger binding of counterions by poly(arylene ether ketone).