Dual-mode models, glassy polymer transport

Section IIA summarizes the physical assumptions and the resulting mathematical descriptions of the "concentration-dependent (5) and "dual-mode" ( 13) sorption and transport models which describe the behavior of "non-ideal" penetrant-polymer systems, systems which exhibit nonlinear, pressure-dependent sorption and transport. In Section IIB we elucidate the mechanism of the "non-ideal" diffusion in glassy polymers by correlating the phenomenological diffusion coefficient of CO2 in PVC with the cooperative main-chain motions of the polymer in the presence of the penetrant. We report carbon-13 relaxation measurements which demonstrate that CO2 alters the cooperative main-chain motions of PVC. These changes correlate with changes in the diffusion coefficient of CO2 in the polymer, thus providing experimental evidence that the diffusion coefficient is concentration dependent. 

Nonlinear, pressure-dependent sorption and transport of gases and vapors in glassy polymers have been observed frequently. The effect of pressure on the observable variables, solubility coefficient, permeability coefficient and diffusion timelag, is well documented (1, 2). Previous attempts to explain the pressure-dependent sorption and transport properties in glassy polymers can be classified as concentration-dependent and "dual-mode models. While the former deal mainly with vapor-polymer systems (1) the latter are unique for gas-glassy polymer systems (2). 

The ex erimental results resented in the preceding chapter and in the literature are inconsistent with the assumptions and the physical interpretation implicit in the dual-mode model and strongly suggest that the sorption and transport in gas-glassy polymer systems should be represented by a concentration-dependent type model. 

These methods are interested in studying the distinction between the pure dualmode sorption/transport model curve and the actual sorption and permeation experiment curve that seems to contain the various unsolved appearances for diffusion and sorption of gases in glassy polymer. It becomes obvious that the deviations from the Fickian model in an experimental transport or sorption/desorp-tion curve for a gas in a glassy polymer are not necessarily consistent with the onset of concomitant diffusion and relaxation [11], but are just owing to the dual-mode model. That is to say, only the combinations of parameters of the dual mode model make the curve either fit with or deviation from the Fickian model curve. 

The following three multicomponent transport models have been used to explain the depression of the permeability of a component in a mixture relative to its pure component value (Fig. 21) the Petropoulos model and the competitive sorption model, both of which assume that direct competition for diflfiisive pathways within the glass is negligible, and a more general permeability model in which direct competition can occur between penetrant molecules for both sorption sites and diffusion pathways. All three of the models presented here are based upon the framework of the dual-mode model. It is worth mentioning that the site-distribution model has recently been extended to accoimt for diffusion (98) and that free volume models exist for transport in glassy polymers (99). 

It is particularly interesting and instructive to note that application of Henry + Langmuir dual-mode sorption and diffusion models is not confined to glassy polymer-gas systems. Sorption and transport of high affinity ionic species, exemplified by anionic dyes, in charged polymers, exemplified by polyamides at low pH, has been treated in the same way. These systems are of considerable importance both from the bio-mimetic and from the textile processing point of view, but have received limited atten-... 

One can easily show that the appropriate equation derived from the dual mode sorption and transport models for the steady state permeability of a pure component in a glassy polymer is given by Eq (7) (18) when the downstream receiving pressure is effectively zero and the upstream driving pressure is p ... 

In the dual-mode sorption and transport model the pressure-dependence of a (= C/p), P and 0 in gas-glassy polymer systems arises from the pressure-dependent distribution of the sorbed gas molecules between Langmuir sites and Henry s law dissolution. Although k, Dg and are assumed to be constant, the average or effective solubility and diffusion coefficients of the entire ensemble of gas molecules change with pressure as the ratio of Henry s to Langmuir s population, C /C, changes continuously with pressure [eq. (14)]. 

The models most frequently used to describe the concentration dependence of diffusion and permeability coefficients of gases and vapors, including hydrocarbons, are transport model of dual-mode sorption (which is usually used to describe diffusion and permeation in polymer glasses) as well as its various modifications molecular models analyzing the relation of diffusion coefficients to the movement of penetrant molecules and the effect of intermolecular forces on these processes and free volume models describing the relation of diffusion coefficients and fractional free volume of the system. Molecular models and free volume models are commonly used to describe diffusion in rubbery polymers. However, some versions of these models that fall into both classification groups have been used for both mbbery and glassy polymers. These are the models by Pace-Datyner and Duda-Vrentas [7,29,30]. 

Petropoulos J H, On the dual mode gas transport model for glassy polymers ,... 

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