Shear influences on the solubility of LDPE in ethene

Abstract The influence of shear on the demixing pressures of the binary system ethene/polyethene was determined viscometrically in the temperature range 147–195°C up to pressures of 1400 bar at polymer concentrations of 18.4, 22.5 and 27.4 wt%, respectively. Autoclaves were used to prepare the solutions and to measure cloud points for the stagnant system. A high-pressure viscometer was used to perform experiments at shear rates γ up to 1500 s −1 . Under all conditions investigated here the two-phase area grows as γ becomes larger and the demixing pressures increase up to 23 bar. This observation is in contrast to theoretical expectation according to which it should be the one-phase region w…