Sorption phenomena of organic solvents in polymers: Part I

In this work we use the vapor-sorption equilibrium data to show the degree of solvent upturn in each solvent-polymer system. For this purpose, 23 isothermal data sets for four polymer + solvent binaries, one block copolymer + solvent binary and for the corresponding polymer pairs have been used in the temperature range of 25-70 °C. Solvents studied are benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and pentane. Homopolymers studied are polyisobutylene, poly(ε-caprolactone), poly(ethylene oxide), n-heptadecane, polystyrene, poly(vinyl chloride), poly(vinyl methyl ether), and n-tetracosane.According to these data sets, solvent weight fraction in the polymer is plotted against solvent-vapor activity that is calculated assuming an ideal gas phase of pure solvent vapor neglecting the vapor pressure of the polymer. We use the Flory-Huggins theory to obtain dimensionless interaction parameter, χ. Also the Zimm-Lundberg clustering theory and non-ideality thermodynamic factor, Γ are used to interpret the equilibrium data.