Simulation of experimentally observed dilation phenomena during integral gas sorption in glassy polymers

A molecular modeling investigation of dilation effects induced by sorbed gas molecules in two glassy polymers is presented. As experimental reference, integral sorption of CO₂ and CH₄ was measured for polysulfone (PSU) and a polyimide (6FDA‐TrMPD, PI4) at 308 K and a pressure of 10 bar. Simultaneously, the gas induced swelling effect was measured with a dilatometer based on a capacitive distance sensor recorded. The experimental evidence of the (on the observed time scale and concentration levels) elastic nature of the gas induced dilation is supported by the dilation and contraction behavior observed in molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of respective detailed atomistic packing models. These models were constructed in accordance with gas concentration levels obtained from the experimental sorption results. Quantitative deviations between simulated and measured dilations are discussed as a consequence of an anelastic response of the polymer matrix which is too fast to be resolved in the experiments whose kinetics is dominated by diffusional processes. In the simulation, the initial insertion of penetrant molecules into equilibrated packing models “circumvents” the slow diffusional process of the experiment and allows a reasonable representation of the dilation process as well as a closer investigation. Our simulation approach reveals a different behavior for PSU and PI4 on the corresponding time scale. Most likely, the different chain mobility of the two polymers is responsible for the respective response to the inserted amount of gas molecules which is discussed in terms of the different chain mobilities of the two polymers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 59–71, 2008