High polymers, dissolution swelling

DISSOLUTION AND SWELLING OF HIGH-POLYMERS a. General considerations... 

The polymer/additive system in combination with the proposed extraction technique determines the preferred solvent. In ASE the solvent must swell but not dissolve the polymer, whereas MAE requires a high dielectric solvent or solvent component. This makes solvent selection for MAE more problematical than for ASE . Therefore, MAE may be the preferred method for a plant laboratory analysing large numbers of similar samples (e.g. nonpolar or polar additives in polyolefins [210]). At variance to ASE , in MAE dissolution of the polymer will not block any transfer lines. Complete dissolution of the sample leads to rapid extractions, the polymer precipitating when the solvent cools. However, partial dissolution and softening of the polymer will result in agglomeration of particles and a reduction in extraction rate. 

One of the widely used categories of polymers for biomaterials design is that of homo-or copolymers, which could generate hydrogels. Hydrogels are three-dimensional polymer networks that could swell in water without dissolution and that, due to their high water content and rubbery nature, are very similar to natural tissues and could be considered... 

For comparison, a telechelic sulfonated polystyrene with a functionality f = 1.95 was prepared. In cyclohexane the material forms a gel independent of the concentration. At high concentrations the sample swells. When lower concentrations were prepared, separation to a gel and sol phase was observed. Thus, dilution in cyclohexane does not result in dissolution of the gel even at elevated temperatures. Given the high equilibrium constant determined for the association of the mono functional sample, the amount of polymer in the sol phase can be neglected. Hence, the volume fraction of polymer in the gel phase can be calculated from the volume ratio of the sol and gel phases and the total polymer concentration. The plot in Figure 9 shows that the polymer volume fraction in the gel is constant over a wide range of concentrations. 

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