Hydrodynamic properties and equilibrium rigidity of polyamidobenzimidazole molecules in dimethylacetamide and sulphuric acid

Translational diffusion, velocity sedimentation and viscometry of polyamidobenzimidazole (PABI) solutions in the range of M = (1–61) · 10³ have been investigated in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) and 98% H₂SO₄. The dependences of D₀, S₀ and η] on M were obtained. Tsvetkov-Klenin's hydrodynamic invariant was found to be $\text{A}{}_0\text{= 3.55 · 10}{}^{\mathrm{?10}}\text{erg deg}{}^{\mathrm{?1}}\text{mol}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>?</mtext><mtext>1</mtext><mtext>3</mtext>}}$. The equilibrium rigidity of PABI molecules was characterized by the length of the Kuhn segment $\text{A = 250 ± 100}\text{A}\text{?}$. The chain diameter was $\text{7 ± 4}\text{A}\text{?}$. The values of A in 98% H₂SO₄ and in an aprotic solvent, DMA, were virtually identical, implying that the rigid-chain conformation of PABI molecules in 98% H₂SO₄ is due to their geometrical structure rather than to the protonization of amide bonds. The significance of the latter evidently increases in PABI solutions in 100% H₂SO₄ in which A is 1.5 times as high. The decrease in rigidity of PABI as compared to that of poly-p-phenylene terephthalamide ($\text{A = 400 ± 100}\text{A}\text{?}$) is in reasonable agreement with the presence of imidazole rings in PABI molecules. The presence of these rings results in kinks in the PABI chain with angles of about 30° and hence, in the depature from parallelism of rotating bonds.