Solvents for polymers

Uses Solvent for dyes and resins preparation of furfuryl esters furan polymers solvent for textile printing manufacturing wetting agents and resins penetrant flavoring corrosion-resistant sealants and cements viscosity reducer for viscous epoxy resins. 

McjC = CHCOCH3. Colourless liquid b.p. 129"C, with a strong peppermint-like odour. Prepared by distilling diacetone alcohol in the presence of a trace of iodine. Converted to phorone by heating in propanone with dehydrating agents such as sulphuric acid. It is a solvent For cellulose acetate and ethyl-cellulose and other polymers. 

Consider that at low temperatures, a lubricant is a poor solvent for polymer chains. When the temperature increases, interactions between polymer chains decrease the space occupied by the polymer ball takes on greater volume and consequently, the viscosity decrease due to the lubricant temperature increase is compensated by the unfolding of the polymer chain and the result is a reduction of the difference between the viscosities at low and high temperature, and therefore an Increase in viscosity index. 

For so-called steric stabilization to be effective, tire polymer needs to be attached to tire particles at a sufficiently high surface coverage and a good solvent for tire polymer needs to be used. Under such conditions, a fairly dense polymer bmsh witli tliickness L will be present around the particles. Wlren two particles approach, such tliat r < d + 2L, tire polymer layers may be compressed from tlieir equilibrium configuration, tluis causing a repulsive interaction. 

Diselenium dichloride acts as a solvent for selenium. Similarly disulphur dichloride is a solvent for sulphur and also many other covalent compounds, such as iodine. S Clj attacks rubber in such a way that sulphur atoms are introduced into the polymer chains of the rubber, so hardening it. This product is known as vulcanised rubber. The structure of these dichlorides is given below ... 

The viscosity average molecular weight is not an absolute value, but a relative molecular weight based on prior calibration with known molecular weights for the same polymer-solvent-temperature conditions. The parameter a depends on all three of these it is called the Mark-Houwink exponent, and tables of experimental values are available for different systems. 

We concluded the last section with the observation that a polymer solution is expected to be nonideal on the grounds of entropy considerations alone. A nonzero value for AH would exacerbate the situation even further. We therefore begin our discussion of this problem by assuming a polymer-solvent system which shows athermal mixing. In the next section we shall extend the theory to include systems for which AH 9 0. The theory we shall examine in the next few sections was developed independently by Flory and Huggins and is known as the Flory-Huggins theory. 

Since the 0 s are fractions, the logarithms in Eq. (8.38) are less than unity and AGj is negative for all concentrations. In the case of athermal mixtures entropy considerations alone are sufficient to account for polymer-solvent miscibility at all concentrations. Exactly the same is true for ideal solutions. As a matter of fact, it is possible to regard the expressions for AS and AGj for ideal solutions as special cases of Eqs. (8.37) and (8.38) for the situation where n happens to equal unity. The following example compares values for ASj for ideal and Flory-Huggins solutions to examine quantitatively the effect of variations in n on the entropy of mixing. 

Athermal mixing is expected in the case of 61 - 62. Since polymers generally decompose before evaporating, the definition 6 = (AUy/V°) is not useful for polymers. There are noncalorimetric methods for identifying athermal solutions, however, so the 6 value of a polymer is equated to that of the solvent for such a system to estimate the CED for the polymer. The fact that a range of 6 values is shown for the polymers in Table 8.2 indicates the margin of uncertainty associated with this approach. 

Use of random flight statistics to derive rg for the coil assumes the individual segments exclude no volume from one another. While physically unrealistic, this assumption makes the derivation mathematically manageable. Neglecting this volume exclusion means that coil dimensions are underestimated by the random fight model, but this effect can be offset by applying the result to a solvent in which polymer-polymer contacts are somewhat favored over polymer-solvent contacts. 

B = 0 when x = 1/2, a condition we have already seen [Eq. (8.60)], corresponds to a critical value of x for a copolymer of infinite molecular weight. For finite molecular weights this condition is not quite a threshold for precipitation, but is close to it. Polymer-polymer contacts are sufficiently favored over polymer-solvent contacts that a chain of infinite length would undergo phase separation. 

Table 8.3 Theta Temperatures for a Few Polymer-Solvent Systems...

Table 9.2 Values for the Mark-Houwink Coefficients for a Selection of Polymer-Solvent Systems at the Temperatures Noted...

Figure 9.8 Log-log plot of [7 ]q versus M for four different polymer-solvent-temperature combinations corresponding to 0 conditions. All lines have a slope of 1/2 as required by Eq. (9.54). (Reprinted with permission from Ref. 1.)...

The factor 1 - p/p2 cannot be too close to zero, nor can the refractive index of the polymer and the solvent be too similar. These additional considerations limit the choice of solvents for a synthetic polymer, while their values are optimal for aqueous protein solutions. 

Furfural can be classified as a reactive solvent. It resiniftes in the presence of strong acid the reaction is accelerated by heat. Furfural is an excellent solvent for many organic materials, especially resins and polymers. On catalyzation and curing of such a solution, a hard rigid matrix results, which does not soften on heating and is not affected by most solvents and corrosive chemicals. 

Resin and Polymer Solvent. Dimethylacetamide is an exceUent solvent for synthetic and natural resins. It readily dissolves vinyl polymers, acrylates, ceUulose derivatives, styrene polymers, and linear polyesters. Because of its high polarity, DMAC has been found particularly useful as a solvent for polyacrylonitrile, its copolymers, and interpolymers. Copolymers containing at least 85% acrylonitrile dissolve ia DMAC to form solutions suitable for the production of films and yams (9). DMAC is reportedly an exceUent solvent for the copolymers of acrylonitrile and vinyl formate (10), vinylpyridine (11), or aUyl glycidyl ether (12). 

Polyimides for use ia molded products and high temperature films can be produced by the reaction of pyromelHtic dianhydride [89-32-7] and 4,4 -diaminodiphenyl ether [13174-32-8] ia DMAC to form a polyamide that can be converted iato a polyimide (13). DMAC can also be used as a spinning solvent for polyimides. AdditionaUy, polymers containing over 50% vinyHdene chloride are soluble up to 20% at elevated temperatures ia DMAC. Such solutions are useful ia preparing fibers (14). 

Butyrolactone is completely miscible with water and most organic solvents. It is only slightly soluble in aUphatic hydrocarbons. It is a good solvent for many gases, for most organic compounds, and for a wide variety of polymers. 

Uses. Butyrolactone is principally consumed by the manufacturers by reaction with methylamine or ammonia to produce A/-meth5d-2-pyrrohdinone [872-50-4] and 2-pyrrohdinone [616-45-5] C H NO, respectively. Considerable amounts are used as a solvent for agricultural chemicals and polymers, in dyeing and printing, and as an intermediate for various chemical syntheses. 

The first reported synthesis of acrylonitrile [107-13-1] (qv) and polyacrylonitrile [25014-41-9] (PAN) was in 1894. The polymer received Htde attention for a number of years, until shortly before World War II, because there were no known solvents and the polymer decomposes before reaching its melting point. The first breakthrough in developing solvents for PAN occurred at I. G. Farbenindustrie where fibers made from the polymer were dissolved in aqueous solutions of quaternary ammonium compounds, such as ben2ylpyridinium chloride, or of metal salts, such as lithium bromide, sodium thiocyanate, and aluminum perchlorate. Early interest in acrylonitrile polymers (qv), however, was based primarily on its use in synthetic mbber (see Elastomers, synthetic). 

Chain transfer is an important consideration in solution polymerizations. Chain transfer to solvent may reduce the rate of polymerization as well as the molecular weight of the polymer. Other chain-transfer reactions may iatroduce dye sites, branching, chromophoric groups, and stmctural defects which reduce thermal stabiUty. Many of the solvents used for acrylonitrile polymerization are very active in chain transfer. DMAC and DME have chain-transfer constants of 4.95-5.1 x lO " and 2.7-2.8 x lO " respectively, very high when compared to a value of only 0.05 x lO " for acrylonitrile itself DMSO (0.1-0.8 X lO " ) and aqueous zinc chloride (0.006 x lO " ), in contrast, have relatively low transfer constants hence, the relative desirabiUty of these two solvents over the former. DME, however, is used by several acryhc fiber producers as a solvent for solution polymerization. 

---