Interchain parameters, calculated

If this parameter is assumed to be the same for all vibrations, one can obtain a bulk thermodynamic definition for y. The bulk Griineisen parameter is found to be about 4 for polymers from the effect of pressure on the velocity of sound. The data suggest that for the heat capacity only the interchain contribution should be taken into account. With this assumption, an order of magnitude calculation shows that the bulk Griineisen parameter for proteins is of the same order of magnitude as that of polymers. This suggests that the thermal expansion and the compressibility of proteins reflect primarily the movement between the secondary structures. These movements are reflected in the low frequency part of the... 

It is evident from the above discussion that the free volume data derived from positron lifetime measurements is incapable of providing information on the composition-dependent miscibility level of the blend. At this point, a new method based on the same free volume data measured from positron lifetime measurements was introduced to determine the miscibility of binary blends. The new method was based on hydrodynamic interactions (the mathematics required have been explained in detail earlier), and calculations of the y parameter derived from the hydrodynamic interaction approach were made for three selected polymer blends, namely poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) (SAN)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (completely miscible), poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) (partially miscible) and poly(vinylchloride) (PVC)/polystyrene (PS) (immiscible) (see Figure 27.13). As can be seen, this parameter behaves similar to the interchain interaction parameter /3, in the sense that it exhibits a complex behavior making it difficult to determine the composition-dependent miscibility of the blends. 

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