Polymer colloidal, tetrahydrofuran

Schmidt, G, Enkelmann, V., Westphal, U., Droscher, M., and Wegner, G. (1985) Preparation of urea-poly(tetrahydrofuran) complexes and their application for fractionation of oligomers, Colloid Polym. Sci. 263, 120-127. 

Hudson, G.E. and Raghavan, S., The effect of water on the zeta potential of cliro-mium dioxide in tetrahydrofuran. Colloid Polym. Sci., 266, 77, 1988. 

The freeze fracture method has been used to study the structure of colloidal particles in water-oil mixtures stabilized by polymer emulsifiers. Microemulsions consisting of water, toluene and graft copolymer composed of a polystyrene backbone and a poly(ethylene oxide) graft were deposited onto a small gold plate, quenched in liquid nitrogen in equilibrium with its own solid phase [436]. Replicas of the fractured surfaces were washed with tetrahydrofuran, which showed the micellar structure of the copolymers. A similar method was used for the preparation of polystyrene polymer latexes for TEM study of the size distribution [437]. In this case, the frozen droplet was microtomed, with a cold knife at -100 to -120°C, etched for up to 90 s and then a platinum-carbon replica was prepared. Etching was found to be unnecessary and a potential cause of error. The remaining latex was dissolved away before examination of the replica. Such replicas can reveal the size distribution and structure of the latex particles. 

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